Devotion
by griffenhawk
Summary: What happens when Rangiku is killed and Gin enters the real world to watch over her reincarnation? (Story will not be updated - apologies to the readers!)
1. Death and Guilt

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tite Kubo – I only own the storyline. **

**Summary: No one knew how much Gin Ichimaru loved Rangiku… not her, and not even himself, until the moment the sword ripped through her chest and she was separated from him…**

**Warning - although this first chapter may seem to be an opening to a very mushy love/romance fic - this fic is not since I utterly FAIL at romance, so basically this story is going to turn really weird right about chapter 5 or 6 D (why I am saying this? I just think I should give people warnings so they can't complain about anything and I just want to make things clear) **

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** Chapter 1 – Death and Guilt**

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His eyes flew open in shock, his smirk wiped clean off his face. His blood red eyes were filled with fear and his mind yelled and shrieked for his Zanpakuto to stop. _Stop! Stop! No!_ Too late… the sword-stopped inches before it's target… but hit another target instead. Gin dropped is sword as it began to shrink back to original size and ran to the fallen body of Rangiku Matsumoto, he yelled her name, his voice pleading, yelling. The Gin now and the Gin before looked entirely different… instead of the usual fox-like face, he now looked like a normal, pain-stricken man, yelling out the name of his loved one.

"Rangiku! Rangiku! Why? WHY!" He yelled, cradling her body, using his kido to hopefully heal her… hopefully. He paid no attention to whatever was around him, only to the lifeless body of the one person he ever cared for… the one person he ever needed in his life.

"G-… Gin…" her voice was weak, her eyes glaze, a small pained smirk lined her face… she raised her hand feebly but before Gin could grab it…. It dropped like a stone and her eyes closed.

"Rangiku!" Ichimaru called again, why did she have to say her name… couldn't she have said something else? Why did she have to say anything at all… why? _Heal damn it! HEAL!_ The thought flashed through his head like an alarm… but it was too late. She was gone, and he knew it.

Hitsugaya Toushiro, the intended target of Gin's Shinso stood silent in shock… Rangiku had blocked the hit intended for him. Why? The young captain stood in shock and when he realized what happened he gripped his sword, Hyorinmaru, in attempt to kill Ichimaru… but when he saw the man before his eyes, pity swarmed his mind. It hit him then that no matter how much he grieved Matusomoto's death… he, Ichimaru Gin, would grieve ten times more. Hitsugaya dropped his sword and stood silent, members of the 4th division arrived along with Unohana Taichou and Isana Fukataichou.

"Oh my…" Isane whispers, her captain remains silent; the members of the 4th division all remain silent and stand behind their captain, unsure of what to do. No one liked Gin much and they felt little pity for him … but the two taichou and Isane all felt pity for the poor man.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

"WHY! WHY!" His shouts could be heard all through the 4th division quarters, he waved Shinso around, extended, slicing everything in its path. Quarters and buildings fell, people ducked to avoid the swinging sword, Gin seemed half crazed. Many thought the man was scary when his eyes were closed… but now that they were open, they were even more afraid, the blood red pupils radiated anger and blood lust.

"Ichimaru Taichou, could you please stop destroying the area… my division is quite scared," Unohana said, smiling… radiating a very frightening aura that sent most people of the 4th division scurrying away. But Gin stayed put, his anger pulsing, Shinso had shrunk again and was held loosely, pointed at the ground.

"You coulda come earlier you know…" His eyes were closed and a large smile was splattered on his face, he raised up Shinso and was about to released, when his eyes flew open in anger at Unohana's next words.

"You pierced her heart, it is a miracle she managed to say your name, let alone raise her arm, she should've died the moment she fell onto the ground," Unohana said calmly, still smiling, yet still radiating that frightening aura. The 4th division courtyard, and everywhere around it was empty and broken. Not even Isane was around, even though she normally stuck by her captain like glue.

"So you're saying it's my fault? MINE?" Gin roared, his eyes open again, his normal mocking voice was gone… his Kyoto dialect was also gone. The way Gin spoke now was like any other man… (I don't know how to explain it well, sorry. x-x")

"I didn't say that, I was actually implying that even if we made it on time she would've died anyways," Unohana replied calmly. Gin would've spoke but members of the 1st Division led by Captain Commander Yamamoto arrived to escort the half-crazed shinigami captain away.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

"We feel your rage and sadness Ichimaru Taichou, but we cannot have you destroying a whole division, we are confi-!" Yamamoto was cut off.

"I quit," Gin said, his eyes were serious, open and his voice was still the same deep as it was when he was talking with Unohana. Yamamoto and his lieutenant seemed quite un-fazed by this change of tone, but many others who heard it stopped in shock, thinking their ears had gone wrong.

"Excuse me?" Yamamoto Taichou said.

"I said… I quit," Gin replied, his eyes flashing, as if daring the old man to stop him.

"We do not-," Again the Captain Commander was cut off.

"I don't care, I quit!" Gin said, and then he stood up and left.

"Should we let him Taichou?" asked Sasakibe fukataichou.

"Return him here, alert the captains…" Sasakiba nodded and left to alert the captains to guard the gate and return Ichimaru Gin.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

The door opened tantalizingly slowly, Gin knew that captains were flying at him right this moment, why couldn't the door open faster.

"Stop!" Hitsugaya called out, landing just in front of Gin. It took a moment for the man to turn around, but that's because it took along time for him to close his eyes and smile… smiling seemed beyond Ichimaru, he couldn't smile… it was too hard. How could he smile? But smile he did, a fake smile... but who could tell? Gin never truly smiled unless he was with Matsumoto...

Hitsugaya glared at the normal face of Ichimaru Gin, the slit like eyes and the wide smirk. "Where are you going?" Hitsugaya asked, gripping Hyorinmaru tightly.

"T' the real world ya know? Gotta find her," Gin replied casually in the mocking Kyoto dialect of his, but the pain and the meaning behind those words were much more serious.

"What will you do when you find her?" Hitsugaya replied, Ukitate and Kyoraku arrived, it seems not many captains were bothering to stop Gin.

"…Live with her…" Gin replied, looking down at the ground, his mocking, Kyoto dialect was gone… he now adopted the deep pained voice he used when speaking to Yamamoto Taichou.

"Will she remember you?" Hitsugaya asked.

"…When you get re-born… it is said that you always love the same thing and whatever you loved the most, you will remember sub-consciously… so if you died now, you would subconsciously have dreams of Soul Society and the people you were friends with and loved until about the age of 5 or 6. If Gin meets Rangiku when she is still remembering of these events, she might remember some things…" Komamura said, apparently he also decided to come.

"We won't stop you," Ukitate said, coughing slightly. "Go!" Kyoraku added in, smirking slightly, "Good luck!" he added in.

"Luck… " Gin did a wry smirk, unlike the normal mocking smirks he did, this was smaller and filled more with pain. "I don't have much…" were his last words to the people of Soul Society before turning and entering the gate towards the real world.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Matsumoto! You have a new healthy baby daughter!" a nurse said to a young couple in Karakura hospital.

"What should we name our new baby dear?" Mrs. Matsumoto said.

"Hmm… how about after my great-great grandmother Rangiku, her birthday was today, September 29th," the man replied.

"Matsumoto it is…" and the baby giggled...

**I always just imagined Gin and Toshiro would be fighting... and right when Gin was about to stab Hitsugaya, Matusmoto would take the blow... I could just imagine it in my head right now. And I always liked how Gin looked with his eyes open, he seemed much more serious and older, so much more mature... and then I just fit in a deep guy-like voice (can't describe it... o.o)****and there you have it - the Ichimaru Gin which I have created in my story. **

**I know he's REALLY OOC - like entirely... but... haha, sorry about that. My first Bleach fic - don't know if it's any good, but this is the first time in along time which I've been so enthusiastic about a story D**

**Hope you like**

**  
-Bye-**

**Griƒƒen**


	2. Reunion?

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Tite Kubo except the storyline. **

**Wow, thanks for the reviews o.O I was actually going to change the whole first chapter, but I don't know if I should now. I'm very happy, and don't worry, Gin becomes less OOC as the story goes on, it's just you know, his grief and stuff is making him that way**

**Chapter Summary: Gin has finally found Matsumoto in the small town of Karakura, but reuniting with her is harder then expected**

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** Chapter 2 – Reunited?**

"Ah… Ichimaru-san!" Urahara said as Gin walked through the door way to Urahara's shop. The man, Urahara, didn't seem to be very surprised at seeing Gin walk through the doorway to his shop, but then again, the guy was never surprised at much.

"You know where she is don't you?" Gin said, his eyes were open again and he had a very un-characteristic like snarl on his face.

"Who?" Urahara asked, playing the idiot.

"Don't mess with me Urahara!" Ichimaru said, gripping his sword tightly.

"You might want to watch where you swing that," was all Urahara said, smirking.

"Tch," Gin replied, turning around, he knew he had no chance with that man, killing him would be as hard as killing Aizen.

"You might want to ask Kurosaki!" Urahara said, before heading towards he back of the shop, Gin stood at the doorway wondering if he should. He knew Ichigo and his father didn't like him much and the stupid guy might attack him, damn orange-head. He hated the color of his hair… hated it, it was too much like… _hers_.

"Eh… aren't you Ichimaru?" Isshin said, looking up suspiciously at Gin, who still wore his captains uniform, Urahara wouldn't make him a faux body, let alone give him one, that ass. The ex-captain didn't answer at first, his eyes just glared at Isshin with annoyance. "Urahara told me you might be coming around here… alright, so, let's see… Matsumoto," Isshin muttered, turning to look at the folders in the filing cabinet. Gin just stood there, glaring, apparently, when his eyes were open, all he could do was glare.

"Did Urahara give you that faux body?" Gin asked.

"This? Yep, that mans a genius, this thing ages you know? I'm not aging, but this body makes me look like I am, gray hair!" Isshin said laughing as if they were old friends. This friendly laugh pissed Gin off for some reason.

"That bastard… he said…" Gin muttered angrily.

"Ah… here it is, Matsumoto, have a daughter who's turning four in three days, name of Rangiku, she's the girl you're looking for I presume?" Isshin said, holding up the folder without even looking at it.

"You knew!" Gin said, taking a step closer.

"Ah… maybe I did, anyways… a doctor isn't allowed to give out personal information," Isshin said grinning, but before he could put the folder back, it was already snatched out of his hand. "Tch, no manners…" Isshin grumbled, but he made no move to get the folder back, and didn't' say anything when he did receive the folder back. Gin left the clinic quickly and went to the address on the folder, her home was near the park. When he arrived at the park, the man expected the place to be deserted, school should be in session at this time, so he was surprised to see a little girl sitting on the swing. His breath caught in his throat… she looked, it really was a reincarnation. Gin remembered the same small face and short hair that still needed to grow. He also, remembered the sad look on her face.

The girl looked up, Gin wasn't sure if he should move away, but even if he did it would've been too late, she saw him. "W-Who're you?" she asked, her eyes were red and it looked like she had been crying.

He didn't answer, his eyes were open in shock and his mouth hung slightly open, what should he say? Should he say anything at all, he was tempted to sneer and say something like, "And what's the little baby crying about?" but for some reason… he couldn't.

**--x--**

_Are ya hungry?_

_Y-Yes…_

_Come with me, I got food for ya!_

**--x—**

Argh! Gin staggered back, it seemed so real, why did he see that?

"W-Wait! Mister!" Rangiku called as Gin ran and left, he didn't turn back, memories flood his mind, blinded him, what the hell was this? He remembered crying, a small voice, a pleading voice… soft lips, a warm hug… ARGH! He felt like yelling or something, but yelling was something he would never do, never.

"Urahara! Give me my body! Isshin said you-" Gin paused, seeing a faux body already in front of him, that looked exactly like him as a child… the resemblance scared him.

"Mm… the price… what should the price be?" Urahara asked, coming out from the shadows.

"No price," Gin answered, taking the body, Urahara made no move to stop him.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

"W-Who's there?" Rangiku Matsumoto asked, she was sitting at the park again. She thought she saw a little boy in the shadows.

"Hey there!" Gin said, smirking, his eyes in his usual slits. Even as a kid he looked like this.

"W-Who're you?" Rangiku asked nervously, he looked a lot like the man from a few days ago.

"The names Gin, Ichimaru Gin!" he answered still smirking.

"W-Why are you s-smiling like that?" Rangiku asked, wiping her eyes quickly, the boy was laughing at him, she could feel it, she didn't notice the smile wipe off Gin's face, she didn't see the twitch of his hand as he thought about whether he should wipe the tears of her face. All she saw was the cold sneering smile that the boy held on his face, in her mind. Then something seemed to click.

"G-Gin… " she murmured, somehow, for some reason… she felt very comfortable around him, as if she had known him for years. "I-I'm Rangiku, Matsumoto… Rangiku…" she replied nervously putting a small smile on her face.

"Why're you cryin there?" Gin asked casually, still holding his disturbing smirk, in truth he wanted to hold her, but he never let his emotions get the better of him.

"M-My birthday is tomorrow… b-but I have no friends… mama, says it's okay, but… but she and daddy think I'm weird, I-I can see ghosts," Matsumoto finished lamely, she was thinking about the strange man she saw yesterday, she actually came to the park to see him again… but he was gone.

"I can see 'em too, spirits," Gin said grinning, sitting on the swing beside Matsumoto. She smiled at him, he remembered that smile from long ago, it stayed the same as she grew older, the same smile, the smile she reserved for him only. She never showed that smile to anyone else, not even to her captain. Even now, she still had that smile.

"I-… I also have weird dreams, I tell mama and she scolds me… daddy once showed me a picture of my great, great, great, grandma… I've seen her in a dream before," If this was anyone else, Gin would've yawned and fallen asleep, but this wasn't just someone, this was her, and so he listened to every word she said. He didn't smile though, instead his mouth was open in curiosity, _I have to act like a child…_ he thought to himself, remember the innocent curious faces he would pull when Ran-chan told him stories. He also remembered the kind smile he reserved for her, he remembered, how innocent he was as a young child, and made sure to act just like that.

"Eh…? Ya sure have weird dreams there," Gin said, trying to hide the happiness in his voice, he didn't sound rude either. Rangiku had just told him about her dreams, how she dreamed of Soul Society and how she saw different people in her dreams. Apparently, her doctor, Doctor Kurosaki seemed very familiar and some other people too, other adults, like Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends, she all thought they were familiar. He felt happy, very happy that she seemed to remember these things, just as Komamura had said she would

"Ran-chan! Get back here!" a sharp voice cut through the two's conversation. Gin looked up in mild surprise, making sure he didn't open his eyes and glare as he would've to anyone else. Instead he looked up with a child-liked curiosity on his face. Even children could look like adults, he learned that when Rangiku commented on how when Gin seems surprised or angry, he would look like an adult. Mrs. Matsumoto stepped towards her daughter and grabbed her by the hair angrily, dragging her off the swing.

"Mama me-ow! Mama, that hurts!" little Rangiku said, trying to release her mothers grip on her short hair.

"What did mama say about talking to strangers?" Mrs. Matsuomoto said, at first she loved her child but when she learned of her child's strange abilities and dreams, she seemed like some sort of monster, or witch, not a human, her daughter was definitely not human.

"Bu-ow! Mama, stop it!" Rangiku called again, tears began pouring down her face, Gin couldn't just sit and watch, not when it was his Ran-chan that was getting hurt.

"Let go!" he said, wishing that he didn't have such a soft child-like voice and that he was in his original body. He placed his pale, small, hand on Rangiku's mothers' arm and tightened his grip, digging his nails into the woman's skin.

"Why you little!" her mother said, releasing her grip and holding her arm in pain, Gin smiled his normal, evil, taunting little smile. The smile that sent shivers down everyone's spine and the smile that made Rangiku's mother back away in fear. "Let's go Ran-chan, this boy is a bad boy, look what he did to mama!" and with that, Mrs. Matsumoto picked up her daughter and carried her away.

The day after that, Rangiku wasn't at the park… and she wasn't there the next day, the day after or even next week. When Gin went to her house, in his faux body of course, her parents slammed the door on him calling him a devil… those words, he felt a pulsing anger beating through him. Those were the exact words the people in Rukongai had called him, the words in which he and Rangiku had to endure, but at least they endured them together. Now, she was alone, and he couldn't protect her like he did the last time.

But that wasn't the only thing stopping Gin from seeing Rangiku, Captain-Commander wasn't very thrilled about the captains letting Gin escape and he made certain that every captain would go out to find the ex-captain. Many shinigami thought this was pointless, they didn't want Gin back, he was scary. The captains didn't want to either, Gin didn't want to be there, and they didn't care much. The only people that bothered to chase after Gin was Hitsugaya and Kira. Ikkaku and Yumichika had to go along as well because they were part of 'Hitsugaya's squad'.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Dad, what the hell is this?" Ichigo said, as he entered his room. Even though he was staying in his own apartment, he still came home sometimes to see Karin and Yuzu.

"Kurosaki!" Ikkaku said grinning, they still hadn't battled again after the small one in soul society and Ikkaku hated losing. Half the reason he came here was to have a fight with Kurosaki again.

"What are they doing here? Is something wrong?" Ichigo asked confused, when he saw Hitsugaya he expected to be hugged by Matsumoto fukutaichou but he didn't see her anywhere, somehow he didn't feel relieved though.

"We're here to take Ichimaru Gin back to Soul Society," Hitsugaya said, keeping his voice calm and level, even though his hands were balled into fists.

"Wha-? What did he do?" Ichigo asked, silence… all eyes were on Hitsugaya, Kira looked away into the distance, something bad must've happened.

"He killed someone, that's it," Kira stuttered at last.

"If you want, could you help us find him?" Hitusgaya asked, his eyes staring hard at Ichigo's face.

"Well… who did he kill?" Ichigo answered unsure.

"A certain fukutaichou," Isshin answered, walking into the kitchen, "You should just leave him, poor mans grieving, I am sure he won't cause any harm. Yama-ji has always been stubborn," grunted Isshin as he sat down on a empty chair.

There was a moments pause to let Ichigo think, a certain fukutaichou… wait… no! "I think I know where to find him, he'll probably be at her house… Matsumoto I mean, I'll show you," Ichigo said getting up, everyone stood except Isshin he sighed and looked away, "tch" was all Ichigo's father decided to say.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Alright, here we are, the Matsumoto residence," Ichigo said frowning, he felt sorry for the little girl. He had seen her and her family a lot in the past four years, as he grew up he always had the suspicion that Rangiku was the Rangiku from Soul Society, but he never guessed anyone would kill her. He just… thought she died or something, but now that he thought about it, it seemed like a stupid thought. His thoughts were cut short though.

Suddenly the small group heard a noise, Ichigo turned around first and then everyone else, for a moment there was a shocked silence.

"I-Ichimaru Taichou!" Kira said weakly, seeing the little boy that resembled Gin Ichimaru so closely.

"Ichimaru…" Hitsugaya breathed, his voice full of venom.

Then… the door of the house flew open, and little Rangiku ran out of the house only to run in between Gin and Hitsugaya's group, much to the little girls shock.

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**I should really plan this story out a bit more. Ah well, I don't think this chapter is as good as the last one. Oh, and I know the ending of the chapter is kind of cliché (in my opinion) but… yeah… **

**I was actually planning to re-write the whole story and make it slightly different, but I think I'll just make a entire new fanfiction instead – with basically the same storyline, but a different way of writing, whoops I'm ranting right now. **

**Erm… it's kind of hard for me to describe Gin's face's as a little boy, but we've seen him as a little boy in the anime and manga so – I'm sure it's not to hard. Thanks for the reviews again. **

**Bye**

**-**** Griƒƒen**


	3. A Little Play

**Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns everything in this story except for the storyline**

**Hehe, sorry, I tend to rant about things after finishing my chapter. Oh, and if you think some things in this chapter are a bit strange… hehe, sorry about. Oh, and I'm experimenting different ways to write Gins speech since I'm to lazy to watch the episodes, so it might change every few chapters )**

**Chapter Summary: It seems that up until now, everything has just been 'part of a plan'.**

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**Chapter 3 – The Little Play

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**

"Toshiro Taichou!" Rangiku said in surprise, everyone froze in shock. What did she just say?

"M-Mats…" was all Hitsugaya could sputter out.

Little Rangiku paused and looked at everyone, Kira, Hitsugaya, Ikkaki and Yumichika and then gripped her head in obvious pain. Something was wrong, visions flooded her head, or where they dreams?

"Rangiku!" Hitsugaya called out dashing to catch Rangiku as she fell, Gin caught her first though, the worry on his face was very apparent.

"Shit," Ichigo murmured quietly, the door of the Matsumoto residence swung open, revealing a angry and worried mother and father.

"Ichigo? What happened? And what are you doing here… _boy…_" Rangiku's mother said with contempt in her voice. Hitsugaya and Kira turned around and realized they couldn't be seen, Ikkaku and Yumichika didn't seem to care about what was happening anymore.

"Um… um… I found her, right now…" Ichigo stuttered, oops that was a mistake.

"What did you do to her boy!" Rangiku's mother screeched angrily, about to attack Gin with her nails.

"W-Wait!" Ichigo yelled, blocking Ichimaru-who was completely oblivious to the rest of the world-from getting hurt. "Um… I'll take her to the hospital, boys with me, sorry about that, lets go Gin!" Ichigo said nervously, pushing Gin slowly away, damn the woman scared him. In truth he never liked the Matsumoto family, this was one of the reasons why.

"Hey wait! Where are you taking her!" Toshiro called angrily, catching up to Ichigo, Kira following after him. Ikkaku and Yumichika were nowhere in sight.

"Ichimaru Taichou!" Kira called in a high pitched, strangled voice that bordered on hysterical.

"We're taking her to my house so my dad can have a check on her!" Ichigo called, he was carrying the lifeless faux body of Gin, who was running beside him carrying Rangiku's body.

Passerby's looked at the running Ichigo without much interest… not really caring about the pale, sleeping boy in his arms. On the other hand, when they looked beside Ichigo, most of the fainted dead on the spot, seeing a floating body of a sleep girl wasn't very normal and that's exactly what they saw.

"Er… Gin, maybe you should get back into your body, people are fainting back there…" Ichigo muttered, turning around after hearing a old lady shriek in fright. The ex-captain didn't answer. When they arrived at the Kurosaki Clinic, Gin literally threw the door open, nearly ripping it off it's hinges and then very gently placed the unconscious body of Matsumoto Rangiku on the examining table, completely ignoring the patients already in Dr. Kurosaki's office.

"Um…" the woman said to Isshin who, of course, could see Gin perfectly fine.

"Was there just… a floating-" the woman's husband didn't finish when Ichigo suddenly burst into the room as well, yelling wildly, "GIN WHAT THE HELL!" and then he stopped, look at this dad and the patients and slowly walked back out turning slightly red.

"Ahem… um… sorry about that, I think it's a bad time, my son seems to be high off coke again," Isshin said in a very serious voice, "I might have to close early, poor soul…" Isshin grunted, pushing out his patients who were probably also bordering on shock. As they saw Ichigo standing their red faced, they literally ran into their car and drove off, going at least 120km p/hr.

"S-Sorry Dad, but um… Ran-chan fainted from shock," Ichigo muttered stepping in, making sure to pick up the fallen door which Gin and broken.

"I saw…" Isshin said dryly, getting up. "Well, would you care to explain how?" Isshin asked, of course, Urahara had already told Isshin what happened,somehow, even though the event only happened 15 minutes ago. Kisuke really had a way of knowing things.

"Well, Hitsugaya, and his group came… and Rangiku saw them, and yeah…" Ichigo trailed of, dumping Gins faux body onto a chair and following his dad into the room where the examination table was. Gin stood beside her lifeless body, his eyes were open, showing his blood red pupils, as Ichigo and his father walked in, he looked up at them and walked out without a word. Ichigo made to follow him but he stopped when his dad called him for help.

Gin wasn't very happy, no he wasn't happy at all. This wasn't part of his plan! All he wanted was to just live life with Rangiku, growing up together, hopefully 'dying' together, except he wouldn't be dying, he'd be the one to send Ran-chan's spirit to Rukongai and then he could find her and live with her all over again. Preferably he wouldn't mind if she died somewhere along her 30's so that she would look exactly the same as she had in her last life in Soul Society but thoughts like that were selfish, and Gin didn't want to kill her again. Frustration overwhelmed him and he stood outside of the Kurosaki Clinic to get some fresh air and peace, except he didn't get the 'peace' part because Hitsugaya and Kira stood at the entrance to greet him. It took a few moments, but his frown soon turned into his original mocking smile and his eyes were close again, as usual.

"Well, if it ain't lil Kira-kun and Shiro-kun," Gin said laughing his annoying mocking laugh which made Hitsugaya want to kill the man.

"T-Taichou," Was all Kira could make out.

"Wha's wrong? Can' talk?" Gin asked mockingly. He always loved mocking soft little Kira.

"Ichi… ICHIMARU!" HItsugaya yelled angrily, gripping Hyorinmaru, he was close to releasing it but he was aware that Isshin Kurosaki was very near them and that guy could probably wipe out all three of them in seconds.

"Wha'?" Gin asked flicking his tongue out to wet his lips.

"I'll… I'll… " Hitsugaya said threateningly.

"T-Taichou… why?" Kira finally managed to make out.

"Why wha'?" Gin replied, faking confusion.

"Why're you doing this? Why didn't you stay in Soul Society, you only had a 5 year sentence, they would've set you free and next year you would've been able to meet her!" Kira said, his eyes were beginning to bulge out of his head. Hitsugaya was seething with so much anger that he couldn't interrupt.

"…took me 4 years t' find 'er, if I took de sentence, I woulda seen 'er nine years later," he said his smile was replaced with a slight frown.

"B-But… I mean… it would cause less trouble," Kira said, the poor guy was nearly on the verge of tears.

"…Sorry, I ain't goin back dere, stayin' here t' be wid 'er," Gin said, he didn't make a move to leave though and neither did Hitsugaya or Kira.

"Um… she's back to normal, you guys might want to get out of here before she sees you again," Ichigo said coming out, he half expected the place to be frozen and the two fighting and was surprised when they weren't.

"Hmph… I'll be back, Gin," Hitsugaya said with as much anger as he could muster, which was a lot.

"Sorry… Ichimaru Taichou," Kira murmured as he backed away slightly and then left to follow after Hitsugaya who was flash-jumping off to Urahara Shop.

"Um… you… you want to see her? You should get into your body soon, she might be worried about seeing your lifeless body," Ichigo said, pointing to Gins faux body still sprawled on the empty chair in the clinic lobby.

Gin didn't say anything to Kurosaki and instead just went in, and entered his body, he smile warmly, much to Ichigo's hidden surprise when Rangiku came out of the clinic with a laughing Isshin and a lollipop in her mouth. Ichigo couldn't help smiling a bit when he saw Ran-Chan hug Gin and the little guy returned it, he had to admit, the two looked really cute together, but… Kurosaki couldn't forget, Gin sided with Aizen. Strangely he felt no anger at this thought, it confused him, "maybe I should just let those to be…" Ichigo murmured after Gin and Rangiku left to go off somewhere to play.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

"What are you planning Kisuke?" Isshin muttered as he stood outside of his home, talking to the shadows.

"Whatever do you mean Kurosaki-san?" Kisuke Urahara replied lightly.

"I can understand why you made Ichimaru a body, and I can understand why you sent those two, Ikkaku and Yumichika back, but I don't understand why you made a growing body for Toshiro and Kira. They don't need one, all they need is a regular faux body, not one that ages and defiantly not one that makes them look four years old!" Isshin said with a frown and a slight glare.

"Well, being 5 sure would make it easier for them to get close to little Ran-chan!" Urahara said smiling.

"Yeah, but you didn't need to make it so they would age, they're not going to stay for more then a few months, and even if they did, the original faux bodies you made for them would still be better!" Isshin commented, getting more serious.

"Isshin-san, are you suspecting me off foul play?" Urahara asked, laughing at his choice of words.

"Yoruichi has told me you've been doing strange things, like how you've somehow managed to make Aizen's body, which is supposed to evaporate appear, and your examining it, what the hell are you trying to do? Also, why do I keep feeling blasts of high reiatsu, they feel like arrancars, but they disappear in seconds, what's up with that? You're hiding something and I don't like it!" Isshin said, if he had his sword and was in shinigami state he would've pulled it out.

"Isshin-san, I don't know what you're talking about, I haven't felt a thing," He still held the same light smile on his face. Isshin scowled.

"You know sometimes Urahara, I don't know whether you're good or bad," Isshin Kurosaki grunted, turning away to walk back into his house.

"I'm not good or bad, I just do what I need to get what I want… some people would say I'm doing evil, but I say I'm doing science," Urahara answered lightly, and then he disappeared into the shadows, leaving Isshin to stand outside with a frown.

"Doing science… science my ass, what the hell are you planning, what's your plan? What do you need… what are you trying to do," Isshin mumbled under his breath. He looked into the sky and at the stars and walked inside, whatever was going on, he wouldn't like it, but Isshin wouldn't stop it. Whenever Kisuke was planning something no one ever tried to stop him, no matter what he was doing, even if it was bad.

Ichigo frowned as he saw his dad and Urahara talking, his dad didn't seem happy either. Not many things made his dad 'unhappy' like that, what was going on? It had been a week since the Rangiku incident and when he saw little Toshiro and Kira hanging around with Gin and Rangiku he knew something was up. As his thoughts drifted to other things, like how school was, and how Rukia was doing, something caught his eye and as he looked into the night sky he swore.

"Vasto Lord…" Hitsugaya breathed into the night, this was bad.

* * *

**Erm, I know the whole 'Urahara, Isshin' thing was kind of confusing, but I'm sort've thinking as I write. Some things I've planned out, some things I haven't – and I didn't want this chapter to be too long. **

**I'll explain about what Urahara and Isshin were talking about next chapter, I'll also explain more about the outcome of the Winter War with Aizen and stuff like that in the next chapter to.**

**And I know you're probably getting tired of this but – damn… seriously my chapters are getting worse and worse. Yeah, I'm hard on myself.  
**

**ANYWAYS - thanks for reviewing, appreciate them. **

**Griƒƒen**


	4. Foul Play

**Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline**

**Okay, I'll explain about the winter war and stuff next chapter – and yes I know I have serious grammar problems, sorry about that. People always say I'm great at writing, but my grammar sucks – and I am horrible at detecting grammar problems. Also my M-Word doesn't seem to find any of my grammar problems . **

**I might take longer to update these days mostly cause summer is ending and I have to get ready for (my first year of) High school gulp o.O**

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Foul Play

* * *

**

"Dad! Dad!" Ichigo called running into his dad who was coming up the stairway.

"Eh? What is it Ichigo?" Isshin said, barely noticing his son, his mind on other things.

"Can't you feel it? This huge reiatsu, what the hell is it? Arrancar?" Ichigo said, the reiatsu was suffocating even though the Vasto Lord was quite far away.

"…" Isshin was silent for a moment, and then, "Let's go!" he said. Isshin took his pen out of his pocket and jabbed Ichigo and himself on the forehead with it, their bodies fell lifeless and father and son took of towards the Vasto Lord which had just appeared.

Suddenly the reiatsu vanished. Hitsugaya and Kira bumped into a confused Isshin and Ichigo, all four of them paused wondering what the hell was going on. Where did the Vasto Lord go? It was still in Karakura, they could feel it, but at the same time… they couldn't feel it. Suddenly they felt a huge burst of reiatsu, they all turned… it was coming from Matsumoto's house, which was, coincidentally, on the other side of where the four shinigami already were.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Hol' up fer a sec there… what's a Vasto Lord like ya, doin' in a place like this?" Gin said, in his shinigami body, his abandoned faux body was lying in a bush.

"I have orders to retrieve the girl in this building, please move aside," the Vasto Lord replied with surprising courtesy for a hollow.

"An' who sent ya these orders?" Gin asked, smirking slightly. The Vasto Lord glanced at Gin with a bored expression. His mask covered his face but that was it, he wore white robes much like the ones the espada wore and his mask had horns that reminded Gin or Ulquiorra.

"My boss," was all the menos replied with, "Now, please step aside Shinigami, I would not like to waste any energy to take out a weakling such as yourself," Gins wide smile shrunk down slightly and if his eyes were open, they would've flashed dangerously.

"Boss eh…? Well, sorry, can't let ya take the girl," the silver haired man said, standing in front of the window that led to Rangiku's bedroom where she lay asleep, unaware of what was happening outside.

"…What is your name shinigami?" The vasto lord asked, a bit of boredom in his voice.

"What's it to ya?" Gin answered back, a smirk on his face, his hands were hidden in his robes, yet he would unleash his zanpakuto in seconds if he had to. If anyone hurt his Ran-chan he would kill them, Vasto-Lord of not.

"My boss is looking for a man named Gin, he said you would probably be here. He also said that you would willingly come if I said his name, but I doubt it…" the vasto lord murmured, the last part was more to himself. Gin frowned for a second, boss? Who could command a Vasto Lord except for… no, but he was dead! And what did he want with Ran-chan anyways? Didn't he _promise_ that she wouldn't get hurt?

"Didn't ya here me, I said ya can't take 'er," was all Gin said, even though other questions flashed through his mind. It took a moment to register that the Vasto Lord had said something back to him.

"Apparently we have company, I could've swore my reiatsu was hidden… and how they arrived so quickly," the way the menos was mumbling though, it sounded as though he could care less. Who cares if more people came? They were just weak shinigami, that's what the vasto lord sounded like.

Hitsugaya and Kira arrived first, then Isshin and Ichigo.

"Vasto Lord…" Hitsugaya murmured, gripping Hyorinmaru tightly, there were three captain levels, and Kira, he wasn't including Gin on this count. The could probably take out the Vasto Lord if they all fought together, and the way Gin was smiling, they were probably working together. The evil… Hitsugaya called Gin every foul name he could.

"What do you want?" Isshin called, standing in front of the Vasto Lord, who eyed Isshin with mild interest.

"That is none of your concern shinigami," the Vasto Lord replied.

"Alright, well can I ask your name? I enjoy knowing the names of my opponents," Isshin said grinning.

"That is also none of your conce-," the hollow was cut off, when part of his white robe tore.

"Oops, my bad…" Isshin sighed, "my hand slipped see?" he commented. No one could tell what the Vasto Lord was feeling, but he must've felt pretty pissed before next moment there was a cero being blasted right at Isshin, at first the man didn't move and everyone realized why. If Isshin moved, Ran-chan would be blasted to bits, instead the man took out his zanpakuto and attempted to block the cero without even releasing it. "The… name is… Kurosaki… Isshin!" Isshin grunted, even though the immense power of the cero was hitting him at nearly full force, he still managed to grin and his zanpakuto was barely scratched by the end of it.

"You are interesting Shinigami... my name is Teufel, now I shall kill you," and then another cero was released, luckily Isshin moved to a different spot so he could dodge the cero blast safely without it hitting anything – hopefully.

"Teufel… what a- HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Isshin yelled when suddenly Teufel disappeared.

"I'm sorry, I must go now, my master is calling… oh and Gin-our master does wish your safe return-also, I will now take the girl from your hands, good day!" and then he disappeared, back to Hueco Mundo.

Gins eyes flew open, his mouth in a snarl, but he couldn't do anything. Teufel had already left, he remembered hearing that name. Aizen had said Teufel was a Vasto Lord he was hoping to recruit. Was he really back, was Aizen _really_ back?

"What the hell is going on?" Ichigo said glancing at Gin and then at his dad who was staring off into space somewhere. Hitsugaya was glaring at the spot the menos disappeared, and Kira was looking worriedly at his ex-taichou.

"T-Tai…chou," Kira murmured, looking down. Was he really going to go back to Hueco Mundo? Would he really betray soul society again…?

Everyone left in a few minutes of silence, each thinking their own separate thoughts. Gin was the only one left standing, he was still glaring at the same spot where Teufel disappeared to, he gripped Shinso tightly, tempted to let his zanpakuto shoot out and just stab a random person in the back just for the fun of it. How had he gotten past him? It was impossible… slowly Gin turned around to look in the now, empty bedroom, of Rangiku Matsumoto who had slipped between his grasp yet again.

Damn it, she was so close to him yet… yet she was also so far. He couldn't see her as much as he wanted, and now she was just… completely gone. What the hell did Aizen want with her anyways? Gin looked down at the ground and closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears from coming out, that didn't work. For the second time in his life, Gin cried… and it was for the same person. When he next looked up, it was dawn and the sun was just beginning to rise. He glanced at his abandoned faux body, and blew it up. Then he headed towards Urahara shop, he knew about the portal Urahara had and he intended to use it. If only he hadn't lost his hollow powers, but he wasn't allowed back into Seireitei unless he got rid of them.

"Ran-chan… I'm coming," he whispered, without a smile.

* * *

**Alright, when I re-read my chapters, I realized… they were kind of long, in my opinion. I don't know about all of you, but reading long chapters on the internet kind of hurts my eyes. On M-Word my chapters seem really short, but I keep forgetting I'm using size 9 font instead of size 12 (the normal size I use).**

**So, I'm deciding to write shorter chapters. **

**What else… hmm, oh it would help it you said what my grammar problems were (run on sentences, spelling etc.) – my teachers say my biggest problem is run-on sentences so… ) **

**Oh and keep reviewing, thanks a lot. Remember, **_**constructive**_** criticism and help is always welcome. **

**-****Griƒƒen****-**


	5. Explanations

**Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns everything in this story except for the storyline**

**Hello, sorry for the wait – even though it was only a few days. I've been thinking about the story and how I should make it end and how everything is going to fit together and stuff like that. **

**I've actually also been working on another Bleach Fic, but I'm not going to post it up, I'm going to post it on this site after I'm halfway done. Oh, this chapter I'm going to explain some things – hence the chapter name 'explanations'.**

* * *

**Chapter 5 – Explanations

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**

"Heh, so you're here eh?"

Gin turned with a slight frown on his face. He looked at Isshin with no interest, in fact he seemed to be looking past Isshin, at something else. No emotion showed on his face that the elder shinigami could see, and a long silence stretched for a couple of minutes before another voice spoke.

"Dad! What's going on?" Ichigo asked, wondering why his dad asked him to come to Urahara's underground training area. When he spotted Gin, a frown appeared on the young adults face and his hand twitched, moving slightly to Zangetsu on his back. Gin and Isshin noticed the slight movement, the first man smirked and the second man laughed out loud.

"Save the fighting for later Ichigo, Gin isn't your enemy!" His father said, whacking his son on the head quite hard, while laughing out loud, completely not seeing the anger and annoyance on his grown sons face.

A moment later, more people arrived. Hitsugaya frowned at seeing Gin and Kira looked a bit unsettled and avoided looking at his captain, who smiled in amusement at seeing the two new arrivals actions upon seeing him. Behind his smiling mask though, was a hidden feeling of loneliness.

"Good, you're all here," Yoruichi said, coming up quietly to the group of shinigami. Her arms were crossed and her face grim. She didn't look happy and her seriousness affected the whole group, no one smiled. "As you all know, something strange is going on… and I will explain it to you," a look of pain flashed across Yoruichi's face but it disappeared as fast as it appeared.

"If you remember, After the winter war, Kisuke was testing bringing back dead souls. No one minded because he said he was just testing upon shinigami on the good side… that was a lie, I only found out few years ago what he was doing. Somehow… Kisuke had managed to bring back Aizen, but luckily he had taken precautions and took to mind-wipe him so he remembered nothing except the fact that he was dead… or so we thought," Yoruichi paused, breathing deeply as if to control herself.

"We learned… a year ago that Aizen was just acting. No, he wasn't doing an illusion because me and Kisuke took precautions to never look at his zanpakuto, it seems he remembered everything and just stayed here to research about some of Kisuke's other inventions that Soul Society did not know about… one of the inventions Aizen was interested in was the _Ijinyari_ (Devil Spear),'

"The Ijinyari is something Kisuke created when he was also quite power-hungry, back long ago when he created the Hougyoku, he knew that with the Hougyoku it would be possible to rule Hueco Mundo, but he also wanted to see what Hell was like… and so he created the Ijinyari, something that could control all the devils trapped in hell, but I was able to make him gain his senses and make him stop creating these things… I urged him to destroy this thing, but it was to powerful, we couldn't destroy it and so Kisuke hid it inside of him, so that no one would ever find out, we never told the people in Soul Society either,'

"This wasn't the only thing Aizen was interested in though, he also read about the OTHER thing the Hougyoku could do, as you know the Hougyoku was created to destroy the barrier between Hollow and Shinigami, but it was also created to destroy on more barrier… Shinigami and Zanpakuto. I am sure you remember Baishin, Urahara tested the Hougyoku on him and when we saw the results… we decided to keep this power of the Hougyoku secret. We didn't know how Aizen found these documents but he did, and he wanted to find these. About a month ago, he kidnapped Kisuke, I don't know how but there was a note he left behind. I didn't learn out that the Kisuke up until a week ago was fake until about the time Isshin did," the poor woman looked like she was about to break into tears despite her strong composure.

The others waited for more info, all frowning, Gin's mouth switched between smirk and frown. The Ijinyari was a dangerous thing… Aizen obviously wanted the power to rule the demons in order to start another warm, Hueco Mundo AND Hell vs Soul Society, it was obvious who would win. The beings of hell were dangerous, an average demon was as strong as a Adjuchas.

"I always knew Kisuke wasn't as nice and kind as everyone believed him to be," Isshin muttered, gripping the hilt of his zanpakuto. Yoruichi didn't answer, shame was shown all over her face.

"Why does 'e want Ran-chan?" Gin asked, cutting another long silence.

"…When Rangiku was re-born, Kisuke hid the Ijinyari within her, because he knew her strong reiatsu would be able to shield the power of the Ijinyari… but Aizen obviously managed to wrestle the information out of Kisuke… that is why he attacked Matsumoto," Yoruichi said, her voice confident now that she was able to regain her composure. Although a trace of sadness still showed in her eyes.

Gin was silent for a moment, his hands twitched and then balled into tight fists even though his face showed no emotion, it was obvious to tell how angry the man was because of the murderous feeling of his reiatsu.

"Wait... does that mean Aizen can merge with his Zanpakuto? But if you do… isn't it permanent like Baishin, and won't he lose his mind?" Ichigo asked suddenly, remembering painfully about Baishin who was consumed by his zanpakuto.

"No… after that incident, Kisuke modified the Hougyoku and tested it out on other people. Now it's like turning into a viazard, you can merge with your zanpakuto anytime, if you are a viazard you may also merge with zanpakuto, but arrancar may not because their zanpakuto's are just their true forms trapped into the image of a sword," Yoruichi said quickly answering the next question on Ichigo's mind.

"What would happen… i-if someone merged with their z-zanpakuto?" Kira asked tensely, gripping his sword with white knuckles.

"Mm… different things," Isshin was the one to speak this time, "If Ichigo merged, nothing much would change except that he might gain a burst in speed and power and his appearance might change to that of his zanpakuto, but Ichigo's zanpakuto isn't very special so not much might happen, unlike someone with an elemental zanpakuto," Isshin said.

"So… would I be able to use my zanpakuto's ability, like getsuga tenshou with my hands or something?" Ichigo asked, a bit annoyed at the way his dad described zangetsu at the end.

"Yep, basically," Isshin said, grinning at his sons obvious displeasure.

"Where as you, Hitsugaya, might turn into a half dragon. Your arms, parts of your head, feet, might grow claws and resemble a dragon. Along with wings and a tail like your bankai, and you'll probably be able to summon quite a bit of ice as well as possibly control the weather and summon ice dragons, people with elemental zanpakuto's will be noticeably stronger then those with a non-elemental zanpakuto," Yoruichi said, glancing at Hitsugaya.

"So… what ability might I have?" Gin asked, slightly amused. Even at times like this, he could imagine swords shooting out of his hands, and being able to stretch himself like rubber.

Yoruichi looked at Gin for a moment but didn't answer, not that the ex-shinigami expected her to anyways.

"So, anymore questions?" Isshin asked, no answer.

"Then lets go," Yoruichi whispered with a dark face.

* * *

**I know this chapter was pretty short to, I'll explain more if you want, about merging with your zanpakuto and about the **_**Ijinyari**_** more if you would like me too. **

**I guess I'm getting lazy about going into detail, sorry about that, but seriously if you want me to make this chapter longer and to explain the things more, I will. I won't have any problem with it. Oh and you can have fun with imagining what other shinigami would be like if they merged with their zanpakuto, so far I've imagined Ichigo, Gin, Hitsugaya and Byakuya as well as Matsumoto and Kira. Aizen I can imagine as well.**

**Oh and about the 'Ijinyari' thing, I don't know if the translation is correct, so if it's wrong, please correct me. **

**  
Anyways, enough of my ranting – Next chapter will come in… a week... or less, eh, you'll find out sooner or later.  
**

**-Griƒƒen**


	6. Decisions

**Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline **

**Okay, this chapter will be pretty short, but it's not cause I'm losing inspiration or anything (just in case people worry). The next chapter will be longer, and I'm not sure about the chapter after that. Anyways – without further ado, Chappy 6!**

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Decisions

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**

Everyone stepped through the portal, each person immersed in their own thoughts. The group looked at the barren grounds of Hueco Mundo, shivering as they remembered the dead bodies, except Gin. Gin's mouth twitched as he remembered the bloodied bodies of dead shinigami, the yells, the screams… the blood, but then a face flashed through his head and he fought the urge to cringe and cry out. In his minds eye, as he stood on the plains of Hueco Mundo, surveying the war, he saw Matsumoto get stabbed… _but she survived that stab…_ something spoke in his mind.

He nodded mentally to himself, but then another, darker voice said, _But she didn't survive the next stab…_ and Gin was brought back to the memory of the time he killed her. For some reason, he remembered the pain and surprise on her face in great detail, for some reason, he remembered her weak voice as she spoke he last words… _Gin_… his name. Gin fought the urge to fall onto his knees and cry, he looked down at the ground instead, his teeth clenched tightly together and his hands were balled into tight fists as his body trembled, trying to control the tears that were threatening to pour out of his eyes like a waterfall.

_So you are back… Gin… _a voice, Aizen's voice, pounded through his head, disturbing his thoughts.

"A-Aizen Taicho," he mumbled, trying to keep his voice light and steady.

_Are you going to betray me Gin? _Aizen's voice again, pounded through his head, giving him a headache, a big one at that.

He didn't answer… the pain in his head increased, Gin stood up straight and stared at the direction of Los Noches with a slight frown. The others followed his gaze, but for a different reason. They stared because that place was their enemy, Gin stared… because Aizen was there laughing at him, and it made him _slightl_y annoyed.

_So?_ Aizen's voice again, Gin grinned, _I'm home Aizen-Taicho!_ Gin replied, and far away Aizen laughed. His laugh echoed far, and reached the ears of the group of shinigami. They glanced at Gins wide grin and frowned. Hitsugaya was the first to suspect betrayal.

"Gin…" Hitsugaya whispered, gripping his zanpakuto, ready to unleash it at any moment.

"Sorry guys… but I gotta save Ran-chan, and this tha only way witout gettin' 'urt," Gin said and then stepped into a portal created for him and disappeared.

Hitsugaya lunged, Ichigo yelled and Kira made a strangled cry that sounded like someone was dying. Yoruichi and Isshin had no reaction, "Are we going?" Kurosaki senior said, and then he turned without waiting for an answer. It took a moment for Ichigo and Hitsugaya to get going, but when the two went, they were filled with a burning anger.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him…" the two whispered together, but that was the only thing said before they arrived at Los Noches.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

"I am glad you returned Gin," Aizen said, his voice and the smile on his face were mocking.

"Yep, I'm home Aizen-Taicho!" Gin replied with a smirk, undaunted by Aizen's smile.

Aizen laughed and then waved his hand for Gin to leave. After the man left, Aizen smirked and flicked his hand, a image appeared in the air of Gin walked away with a slight frown and then the image disappeared, leaving a satisfied smile on Aizen's face.

Gin, who was quite aware that Aizen had been spying on him smirked a bit after he felt the tingling sensation of being watched pass. Then he frowned again, but instead of his slight frown which didn't really mean, the frown he wore on his face meant anger, and sadness. He walked into a side hallway and then into his room, which was still the same as it had been six years ago.

The ex-shinigami sat on his bed after a nice shower, his silver hair dripped slightly and he wore no shirt, a towel draped on his back. His eyes were open, the pools of red glared at the wall, as if daring the stone to crack, which it did. Thoughts swarmed through his head, ones of anger, confusion and annoyance.

What were these feelings? He had never felt these feelings before. Every time Gin walked away from Rangiku as a child, he threw a bit of his feelings away as well. The day he walked out of Ran-chans life completely, was the day feelings stopped associating themselves with Gin Ichimaru. Why then, did he still feel things? Why did he feel anger at Aizen for taking Matsumoto when he had ignored her and felt nothing for her after the Winter War. Why did he feel regret after stabbing her when at any other time, he might've laughed. Dimly, the memory of Matsumoto getting stabbed flashed through his mind and he felt a surge of anger… it took nearly 15 minutes to rip Shinso out of the wall.

Feelings made people weak… all he wanted was power, _power…_ that's what Gin tried to tell himself, but it didn't work. Whenever he tried to think about power, or about ruling and being second-man to Aizen… Matsumoto's face would appear and shatter his thoughts as a strange, hot feeling rushed through his mind and body. _Love…_ a voice spoke in his head. A warm, kind voice… the voice Gin used as a child when he first laid eyes on Rangiku Matsumoto.

_Heh, Love… _a taunting voice from another part of his mind replied.

_You love her!_ The warm voice said in a matter-of-fact tone.

_No… I threw those away..._ Gin thought to himself.

_You can't throw away love_ the kind voice replied, it echoed through Gins system. What should he do?

_Are you going to save her!_ The taunting voice yelled, giggling.

_She needs you..._ the warm voice whispered.

"Save her…" he whispered quietly, he thought about it. Minutes passed with silence and then he stood up with a smirk, "as if!" and then he put of his uniform and walked out of his room whistling while Aizen laughed in his throne again, and then he flicked his hand and a image of a unconscious Matsumoto, Rangiku appeared. The young girl was pale, and weak… she talked in her sleep, "_Gin… where are you… why did you go… come back…" _A smirk appeared on Aizens face and the image disappeared as Gin entered the room.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

"Hitsugaya-Taicho!" Rangiku yelled as she sat up in her prison cell, far away, her captain groaned in pain.

* * *

**Heh, yeah… I said it would be short. Sorry about that, I hope you don't mind. I tried to stretch it a bit, but when I did it turned out really bad. Like I was just adding in random bits of words and paragraphs just for the hell of it.**

**Next chapter will definitely be longer – well… when I get to writing I am sure it'll be longer. It involves fight scenes.**

** I'll also take a bit longer to update since I have no experience with fight scenes and Bleach - and I don't want the chapter to turn out rushed and bad so I'm going to take my time on it. If it does turn out bad... um... obviously I have no talent. I've tried before... turned out really confusing - I re-read the fight scene and wrote, and realized I had no idea what I was talking about so yeah. I'll shut up now.  
**

**Well, until next time. **

**Griƒƒen**


	7. Little Captive

**Disclaimer: Everything in the story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline. **

**Alright, here's the next chapter. I feel kind of bad… no reviews. cries in emo corner - ahem sorry about that. Haha, actually I don't feel to bad, I guess school is starting about now so I understand. **

**I just started High School so it kind of occupied my mind. I'm getting a lot more homework xD Hahah, oh well, I couldn't think of a good name for my chapter and fight scene will be next chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Little Captive

* * *

**

Rangiku panted, wondering why she yelled so loud. Her head hurt horribly and she kept having images of a boy, _Hitsugaya-Taicho_, her mind thought immediately as the boy appeared in her mind. He lay on he ground, surrounded in a pool of blood… un-moving. Why was he like that? What had happened to him, Rangiku found herself crying. She wanted her mama, where was she? What happened? The poor four year old didn't know what was going on, but somewhere in the back of her mind something stirred.

"Oto-san… Kaa-san…" Matsumoto said between sobs, tears slid down her face like a waterfall.

"Cryin' fer yer kaa-san eh?" Gin asked stepping into Rangiku's prison with a smirk, although inside he felt like holding her and telling her everything would be fine.

"W-Who a-are you?" Matsumoto asked, her voice high and filled with fear.

Gin smirked and took a step closer to little Ran-chan until he towered over her and his body blocked off the light from the hallway. Originally Gin planned on crushing the girls hopes but when he tried to open his mouth and say something his voice caught in his throat and nothing would come out. He frowned slightly and opened his eyes just a crack, hoping he would scare the girl. Oops… that was a mistake.

"Gin-kun?" Rangiku asked, she didn't know why she said 'Gin-kun'. Gin was much younger, he was definitely not this cold man… but… she felt very calm and peaceful near him and felt she had known this man for ages.

"What?" Gin replied, and then he quickly said something else to hide the shock, "So ya know my name huh? T' bad ya won't know it much longer Ran-ch-," Gin paused, should he say Ran-chan like normal? "Rangiku-san," he whispered near her ear at last and then he turned around and walked quickly out of the room trying to stop his heart from beating so quickly.

"…where am I…" Rangiku whispered, the face of Gin Ichimaru flashed through her head, the way he smiled, his red eyes… at first fear was felt when she imagined his face, but soon the fear was replaced by another feeling the girl didn't know of. Slowly, Rangiku fell asleep… and began to dream yet again, of the strange white-haired boy.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

Hitsugaya held the right side of his chest with his left hand, his free hand held Hyorinmaru, barely. The young captain was drenched in his own blood, his vision was blurry and the world seemed to spin when the boy opened his eyes, but he fought to control his urge to vomit on the spot.

"Hehe, so much for a shinigami captain! If all captains are like you, Aizen-sama should've taken over a long time ago!" giggled the other person in the circular dome room.

"Shut-up…" Hitsugaya murmured, his voice slurred, and it hurt to talk. He was surprised that his feet could even support his weight. Slowly the captain glanced at his opponent and tried to muster what looked like a death stare, but he couldn't. Instead his eyes just slanted slightly and that was the best he could do.

"hahaha, oh this is fun! I hope you're not DONE YET SHINIGAMI!" suddenly Hitsugaya's opponent disappeared. "Behind you!" and then the white-haired captain felt himself on the cold floor of Las Noches yet again. This time, he couldn't get it… his blood spilled in a pool around him. He could barely keep hold of Hyorinmaru, his zanpakuto called to him, his vision became blurry, slowly the captain closed his eyes. _Toshiro! Toshiro!..._wait… that wasn't Hyorinmaru's voice, _Toshiro! Wake up, don't die… what about saving Matsumoto! Hitsugaya Taicho!_ Why couldn't they just let him sleep?

"He isn't waking up…" Ichigo mumbled feeling a heavy weight on his shoulders.

"You couldn't have done anything," Isshin commented.

"Shut up! I know I couldn't!" Ichigo replied angrily. He wasn't 15 anymore, he was a young adult, and he was in University, but seeing a dead comrade… it made him feel young and weak again.

"You really do have this _saving people thing_ don't you?" Yoruichi said, and then she hit Ichigo hard on the head and walked away to think.

The voices were all blurred and muddled up in Hitsugaya's mind. _Ichigo… Yoruichi… Kira…_ who were these people? Light blinded him as the captain opened his eyes. He couldn't move his hands to shield his eyes, he felt tears. He felt stupid. He felt utterly powerless, this feeling, he hated it. Never had anyone bested him in a battle, never had anyone defeated him, not until today. Who was that amazingly strong arrancar? Was it a new espada? He, or it, seemed different though.

"I think he's coming to," Kira's wimpy voice cut through Hitsugaya's hazy thoughts and replaced them with a urge to whack the man in the head.

"Here you go," Isshin mumbled, lifting Hitsugaya gently into a sitting position. The captain nearly fainted again, but then he felt something enter his mouth and he sat up immediately! Herbal tea, one of the most nasty tasting things Hitsugaya had ever tasted! It was the most vile… the most… "GET THAT AWAY FROM ME!" Hitsugaya yelled angrily. Yoruichi grinned and poured the contents of the cup onto the ground here it seemed to sizzle a bit like acid, much to Hitsugaya's horror.

"Alright, now could you tell us your story of the battle? We leave you alone for 30 minutes and then we feel you die… what is with that?" Isshin said, trying to make the situation seem lighter then it really was.

Hitsugaya was silent, he looked at the ground, he could just imagine the disappointment, in his mind he could imagine a dead Hinamori, skewered by a spear of some kind. His fists clenched and then he breathed and began to tell his tale of his battle against Aizen's new, number 9 espada. (**A/**N - Story will appear next chapter)

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

Ran-chan lay awake in her empty cell, thinking about random things. Twice she felt someone outside her door, and twice they walked away without saying anything or even entering the room. She didn't know how she felt the person, she just did. _Reiatsu_, the little girl really wished that voice in her head would be quiet. It scared her, how that voice seemed to know so much about this place _Las Noches…_. She clamed her hands over her ears and whimpered slightly, a great feeling of homesickness overtook her, even though her mama and papa didn't treat her as nice as she liked, the girl still missed her parents, her home, her toys, and everything back in Karakura dearly.

"Kaa-san… Oto-san…" whimpered the little girl, she wiped her eyes quickly and tried to become calm when she felt the same presence near her door of the cell yet again. How she wished she was tall enough to se through the window at the top of the door, the only source of light the room had.

Everything was still for quite a while, the presence was there and Ran-chan could feel it, she waited, feeling fear pound through her body. Yet unlike a normal four year old, who would have bawled her eyes out, she stood her ground and stared daggers at the door. Daring the person out there to enter. Her hand absently trailed around to grip a zanpakuto which wasn't there and when she gripped empty air, real fear seemed to enter her body. It seems that 'little Ran-chan' had disappeared and instead, a older, more mature person had appeared.

Gin stood outside the door, he had come here many times already, he had wanted to crush the little girls dreams, make her cry and yell in fear, but he couldn't. When his hands touched the doorknob he would feel a pounding fear in his heart, fear or guilt? _I feel like a pedophile…_ he thought grimly, being in love with a little girl wasn't right. Even if she did harbor the spirit of the most wonderful woman ever.

"Hahaha, ah… that little shinigami stood no chance!" cackled a espada who turned the corner. He glanced up and spotted Gin and a cruel smile appeared on the espada's face.

"Gin-sama," he said solemly.

"Biji-san! Care to join me for some tormentin'?" Gin asked, while his mind screamed and screamed the words _DON'T LET HIM TOUCH HER!_

"Why sure there Gin-sama!" the espada named Biji replied, grinning devilishly, showing rows or razor sharp teeth.

Rangiku caught her breath as she felt a more ominous present approach, but she didn't let fear master her. The actual little Rangiku, the spirit of the little girl, was locked deep away in her heart. Little fists clenched together and she waited, she stood no chance but it was possible she could piss these two people off so they would never see her again.

The door opened a crack, the girl held her breath, it seemed to take ages for the door to open. When she saw Gin at the door, she felt like running to this man and hugging him, she felt like crying her heart out to him… she felt… she felt so many things! Hate, love, happiness, fear, wariness, and then she felt a claw at her throat. "Ain't you a pretty little girl?" and then blood stained her clothes.

* * *

**Fight Scene, next chapter-oh and this won't be a Ichigo gains uber power-up and pwns all story. In fact, I'll just let this out – Aizen's new Espada crew could probably wipe out the whole SS or at least take on 2-3 captains at a time :D  
**

**Updating will DEFINITLY be A LOT slower sadly, school sucks, damn High School and extra curricular things. **

**-Until Next Time-**


	8. The New Espada

**Disclaimer: Everything in the story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline. **

**So how long has it been? A month? I probably would've forgotten about this story had not two or three people made it a favourite or story alerted this. Haha, yep my bad. But at least I'm updating, ah, I feel bad that I nearly forgot about this story.**

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**Chapter 8 – The New Espada

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**

"This place doesn't look much different than last time, white boring walls and the feeling of hollow," Ichigo muttered. No one responded. The group entered a circular room which was completely empty, they would've left had it not been for the enormous killing reiatsu they felt in the room.

"Ah, finally, you guys sure took a lot of time!" A high pitched laugh was heard. It could've come from the Joker (Batman) himself!

"Who are you?" Ichigo yelled gripping his sword. He was about to charge straight into the middle of the room but Isshin held him back.

"We don't have time for this, who wants to fight this guy?" Isshin whispered gruffly, Kira whimpered and didn't respond, neither did Yoruichi.

"I will, I'll meet up with you guys later." Hitsugaya said with a irritated sigh as he glanced at Kira who was still in semi-shock and looked like he was about to wet himself.

"Aww, that's no fun, no fun at all! I fight against a weak little boy!" the voice echoed across the room, but only Hitsugaya heard for the rest had left. The young captain held his sword tightly to contain his anger but showed no actual emotion on his face.

"Come out coward, no true fighter fights in the shadow." Silence. A figure appeared in the center of the room. The arrancar was pale, in fact his skin was slightly blue and reptilian and he had three scratches on both cheeks. His teeth where sharp, and he had clawed hands. His eyes were golden and snake-like, his hair was a dull and dirty blonde. The arrancar wore the usual white garb, but it was open and reminded Hitsugaya dimly of Grimmjow. A small 9 was plastered on the guys neck. "An espada," Hitsugaya murmured, but he looked different. Not very human and the shinigami could see no whole and the no remains of a hollow mask. Or was it the scars on the espada's cheeks?

No time to think as the espada launched himself at the captain in a very animal like manner.

"Haha, don't doze out little boy!" The espada cackled in his abnormally high reptilian voice.

"My name is Hitsugaya Toshiro, captain of the 10th division! Don't think so highly of yourself!" Hitsugaya yelled back, he fought to keep the anger hidden. His hands gripped Hyorinmaru tightly as the sword spoke to him, _Calm Toshiro… do not let him anger you_. As always, Hyorinmaru was a great therapist.

"Aren't you going to unleash your sword? I heard shinigami are useless without them!" He seemed to go all over the room, the espada. He jumped from wall to wall like a lizard, and seemed to blend into the background. _Do not doubt his strength_, Hyorinmaru said.

"_Soten ni saze, Hyorinmaru!_" Hitsugaya whispered, taking his swords advice. He would finish this quickly and efficiently. The captain swung his sword around, unleashing the large ice dragon around the room, freezing the area completely.

"Missed me," a dangerous, sly voice spoke from behind Hitsugaya. Pain, something slammed into the captains back, a cero? It seemed much more powerful and it had melted half of the ice in the room. "Oops, done already?" the mocking voice of the espada. It enraged the young captain, he had no idea why but he felt a burning anger. _Calm Toshiro, calm!_ Hyorinmaru whispered urgently, he was annoying. He wished Hyorinmaru would just shut up. The captain felt like throwing his sword away… _why would I think that?_ Hitsugaya thought. What was going on? "Pay attention!" just in the nick of time, he dodged a large cero blast.

"Damn you," Hitsugaya murmured, wiping blood from his lips. He swung hyorinmaru at the espada, he disappeared, behind! Hyorinmaru turned, he missed again? Soon the whole room was covered in spikes of ice but the espada still managed to dodge every attack. Every single one, the espada looked like he was taking a stroll through the park whereas the shinigami was panting and bloodied and torn.

"d-daiguren… hyorinmaru," Hitsugaya muttered through bleeding lips. Was his tooth loose? He couldn't tell, he leaped into the air and searched for the espada, attacking whenever he thought he had found the sneaky little demon. He never hit the espada once, but he was always hit back. Sometimes what hit him would be a billowing fireball, at others a cero. Soon the captain was a bloodied mess lying in the middle of the room.

"N-No…" he muttered, his hair was stained red from his blood. His captains robe was stained red with blood. All this loss of blood made him dizzy, but he wouldn't lose. He had trained hard, even though people had made fun of him, called him a little kid and didn't think he could do it, Hitsugaya Toshiro had become the youngest captain alive. He couldn't lose to the second-weakest espada. Wait a minute, if this was the second weakest… how strong were the other espada?

"Done already shinigami captain?" the espada sneered.

Hitsugaya stood up shakily, he still had bankai thankfully.

"Still up to it eh?" the espada grinned, his row of sharp teeth flashed dangerously. "Well, I'm gettin' kinda bored, and you seem pretty strong you know? I think I'll give you a gift," the espada said sneering. "First gift, my name – Biji, second gift, my true form… _aparezca el camaleón_," his sword disappeared. Hitsugaya had a sharp intake of breath and waited. The reiatsu was huge.

The smoke cleared revealing Biji with a half mask on his jaw, his hair grew down along his back and his skin changed from green to pale blue to the color of the walls. His hands were larger, the claws sharper and his eyes were virtually the same. He had no hole.

"Wha-" he felt a pain on his side and glanced down. What happened?

"Haha, you're last gift… death," hot flaming air filled Hitsugaya's nostrils as he breathed in. It burned his throat and his inside, what was the burning feeling? Where was the hole, and why was there only half a mask? Random things filtered through the shinigami's mind as blood spilled from a wound on his side. A wound he didn't even know he had.

"Shit…" Hitsugaya would've laughed at his choice of words just then, but it was hard to even smile at the current moment. _I won't give up…_ Hitsugaya thought, thinking how lame he sounded. It was like reading out of a adventure story, they were all so cliché. Biji said something, he couldn't hear… "Shut-up…" the captain responded. Biji said more things, lots of screeching… black out.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

"And then I woke up. I'm guessing you guys came back and killed him or something," Hitsugaya finished his story darkly, his mood turned sour. He hated admitting defeat.

The way they avoided his eyes told him otherwise.

"We didn't have time, you were dying." Yoruichi said in a consoling way.

"One of us could-"

"Ichigo shut-up," Isshin grunted.

"But-"

"Do you see Hitsugaya, he was half dead, half his body was burned away! I'm surprised he didn't die!" Yoruichi said.

"Wait… what?" Had he just heard wrong? Half of his's body had been burned off?

"The espada are different, very different. I don't think it's half hollow, half shinigami anymore, I think there's a bit of demon in them now. Looks like Aizen managed to learn quite a bit when he was playing the idiot," Isshin muttered darkly.

"Where did Kira go?" Hitsugaya asked, as he glanced around. He was half relieved and half worried the the nervous wreck was gone. They were all silent.

"Shoot."

"F-,"

"Don't say it Ichigo,"

"Crap…"

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

"Oops, Biji, why'd you move there?" Gin whispered at the crumpled and bloodied form of Biji lying on the floor.

Rangiku stood behind him, he covered Biji's body and turned around expecting to see a crying girl, instead he saw a fierce glare that made his heart jump to his throat. He saw her legs move and then felt a sharp pain on his shins, thank god she didn't kick anywhere else. Next thing Gin knew, Rangiku was running out the door. _Oh… my_ Gin though lamely as he held his shins, but secretly he smiled, it was hidden by a glare.

* * *

**If you're wondering about the 'don't say it Ichigo' thing, don't ask. I wasn't trying to be funny it just came to my head. I'm a person who likes a good laugh here and there so I just randomly put stupid, random things in my stories that make me grin. I'm weird, live with it. **

**Next chappy, coming… I have no idea but probably in November, hey if you're lucky if might come before Halloween! (doubt it, but I'll try)**

**-Griƒƒen-**

**Oh and R&R if you please, it's weird, I get all these emails saying 'so and so has added your story to 'Story Alert' or to their 'Favourites' but I never get an email saying 'So and So added a review'. You don't have to review but it's just funny in my opinion. I mean, you'd think I'd get some reviews with my story being on so many peoples alerts/favourites. **

**Haha, do I sound desperate? I'm sorry, right well I'm not forcing you to review or whatever.**

**Biji's release means 'Appear Chamleon' - to spanish people, I dunno if it's right cause I got it from an online translator. **


	9. Urahara's Dungeon

**Disclaimer: Everything in the story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline. **

**Whoa, this time my update really was pretty late, sorry about that. It's funny, I'm always on but I never seem to update my stories.**

* * *

**Chapter 9 -Urahara's Dungeon**

* * *

A smile. A cold, sneering smirk. A expression that seemed to say 'I am king'. The expression in which everyone in Hueco Mundo seemed to bow down to, except for a select few that now wandered it's barren walls.

Aizen said on his "throne", on cheek resting on his fist as he watched a scene in front of him. Little Rangiku running out the door, Gin glaring at her with his cold red slits, muttering incoherent curses under his breath. Only one person knew that this man, Ichimaru Gin, was not as angry as he showed himself to be. The lord of Los Noches flicked his wrist and the scene disappeared into thin air leaving nothing but the darkness of his throne room. Another flick of his wrist and a pillar containing the Hogyoku appeared, except this time, it looked slightly different.

"Hmm… looks like I'm going to have to use you yet again, oh dear…" Aizen murmured in a slow drawl. His hands trailed along the edges of the Hogyoku, a small smirk was still on his face. He didn't even glance up as Gin entered the room, a dead Biji draped over his shoulder. "You must be quite bloodthirsty Gin… but please, do not cut your own comrades," Aizen murmured, his eyes flickered over to his second-in-command for only but a second. Gin smirked in return, unfazed by his captains actions.

"Sorry Aizen-Taicho but just couldn't stand 'im," Gin answered with a small shrug, dumping Biji's body – none to gently – on the ground.

"Mm, still Gin. I do not relish using the hogyoku to many times, even though I have learned how to tap into it's full power, Urahara-san has decided to put in some hidden things not written on paper…" a tone of annoyance appeared in Aizen's voice. Anger flashed through the strong taicho's eyes, Gin shrugged again and reached for the hogyoku, obviously unafraid of his captain.

The room temperature seemed to drop after Gin picked up the hogyoku and let it rest in the palm of his hand. Aizen was silent but his anger was eminent.

"Got quite a bit cold in here eh, taicho? Thought about turnin' up tha heat?" Gin asked, he knew he was being risky but somehow pissing his captain off after believing him to be dead for two years was extremely fun. Also, he couldn't forgive Aizen for hurting his Ran-chan. Not ever.

Aizen did not respond, he was not happy with Gin and he was slightly surprised at the mans daring act before him of even trying to make him mad. The silence stretched and the cold soon left, refilling the throne room with considerable warmth, although there was a small killing intent within the reiatsu of the room. Aizen smiled a cold smile, it would never beat Gin's smile back though. The smile that said, _I hate you… _, Aizen laughed. This was enjoyable.

"Why do you continue following me?"

"You know I like my excitement and there's this… nostalgia in this place. Being in Soul Society has been pretty boring," Gin responded.

"You never seize to surprise me Gin, you risk her life as well as yours you know,"

"You are wrong… I am only risking my life, never will I risk hers." The coldness of Gin's voice, the anger, it nearly made Aizen frown, but didn't. Gin's smile only became wider. "Well, I think I should be going taicho, dunno what t' do with this guy," and with that the man walked out the door.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

Rangiku ran, and ran. She had no idea where she was going, but she just knew that if she ran, she would get somewhere… hopefully. The little girl was terrified out of her mind. She didn't know how she managed to pluck up the courage to kick that scary man, but she did. For a while, Rangiku thought someone else was in her body. Someone who was her, and yet not her. This concept made the small four-year-olds brain hurt, she had just received her first headache.

The girl hid in a little cut-out from the wall to catch her breath, she was surprised she could run so long. The took a glance out from the wall inlet and shrank back again as she saw the scary white-haired man she just kicked. He was looking for her, she just knew it. Something about him though… there was something about him that made her want to go to him. Walk to him. She told that something to be quite because that man was bad and scary.

Rangiku sat, with her legs curled close to her body for a while, shivering. The scary white-haired man was moving around, occasionally she felt other people near her, sometimes, scary looking monsters past her, but none ever noticed a little child hidden in the shadow. While the time past, the young girl wondered why she could feel this man so well, who was he? Even though he was so scary, she liked him… this feeling that she felt whenever she pictured his face scared her. Tears began leaking out of her eyes, they crawled slowly down her face and she wiped them away, but they came faster. The pre-schooler leaned on the wall to cry but instead felt the wall give way and felt hard ground, she sat up and felt a sting on her elbow. It hurt, but the fact that there was another man in the room made her tears disappear.

The man dimly looked up, she couldn't see his face, only piercing, large eyes that were bright, yet dull at the same time. A pool of light was in the center of the room, where it came from she didn't now but she saw two pairs of feet on large sandals that people in olden Japan used to wear. She forgot what they were called.

"Why hello there Rangiku-chan!" The person spoke, she could tell it was a man. His voice was slightly high-pitched and very carefree, she wondered if he cared at all that he was being shackled to the wall. Her eyes widened slightly at the mention of her own name and then she shrank back, wondering how she even came to be in this room. Her hands met cold wall, and she realized that she had no idea how to get out.

"Who… who are… you?" she asked, then suddenly she cursed. The word slipped out so fast and the young girl gasped, she had never heard or used this word in her life before. Was it that man who said that?

"Ah… I can see the old you is trying to come out… hmm…" the man murmured with interest. He ignored her question, but the young girl didn't care much about the man anymore. Her thoughts were now on the word she had just said… it started with an F but now she couldn't even remember it anymore. "Come here." Rangiku glanced at the man warily, his hands were bound so she didn't think he could do anything, but her mama had always said "don't talk to strangers".

"Mama said I shouldn't listen to people I don't know…" her voice was so soft, childish, somewhere in the back of her head she felt very annoyed.

_Damn it, I sound like such a stupid friggen kid!_

Rangiku jerked at this sudden yell, it didn't seem to come from her mind, but at the same time it did.

"Is something wrong? I'm not a bad person!"

"Mama… said…" Rangiku faltered slightly. "Mama…"

_He is a good man, go to him!_

That voice scared Rangiku yet it made her feel strong and reassured at the same time. Who was this voice? Was it her mama? No… it didn't seem like it, but she yelled a lot like her mama did. This voice seemed younger though, and more kind, although she always seemed to be using strange words with Rangiku had never learned yet.

"Ah… finally, I am Urahara-san," Rangiku nodded slowly, still a bit afraid of the man.

"Where am I… Urahara…san?"

"Ah… you are in a dungeon, but if you want a more general answer, I will say you are in Los Noches, located in the middle of a world called Hueco Mundo, ruled by Aizen a very strong and evil man," He seemed to be laughing. The young girl wondered how the man could be so carefree, how he could just smile and grin even though he was locked up in a dark and scary prison. Maybe he had gone crazy, Urahara-san… something in his eyes made him look crazy.

"Hueco…Mundo…" the words felt strange, yet familiar in her mouth. As if she had said these words many times before, but when?

"Hmm… do you remember haineko?" What type of question was that?

"Haineko?" The young girl said, for some reason she felt a sadness when she said the name. How did she know it was a name? She shook her head after a while, Urahara sighed but smiled.

"Unare, Haineko," Urahara murmured, a small smile was on his face. He waited, the young girl was silent. Tears suddenly appeared on her eyes, but she didn't know why.

**-x-x-X-x-x-**

"Abre" the wall slide open, nope, not there.

He said it to another wall, nothing behind that wall either.

A childish, confused look formed on Gin's face, his mouth formed a small 'o' as he thought.

"Where could Aizen-taicho had placed Urahara-san?" he said in quite a loud voice. "Don't feel like askin' 'im though..." then with a shrug, Gin continued walked to what seemed like random walls to see if anyone was locked in the rooms behind the walls.

It took a long time. He finally found the right one.

"Aizen-taicho… you really picked a high-security door," Gin muttered in a whining sort of voice, but a small smirk was on his lips. "Abre" a rumble was heard behind the wall, but nothing else.

"Kamei Kaihou!" another rumble. Gin sighed, "Hmm… what was the last one?" He took a step back and then grinned and the tip of his zanpakuto appeared from under his white uniform. "_Ikorose, Shinso!_" the blade shot out and seemed to hit a random part of the door, suddenly the wall seemed to crumble.

Gin stepped through while a smile, and then his smile was replaced with a large frown, shock wasn't an expression Gin had ever learned how to express on his face. If he had learned, it would have been on his face at the moment he stepped into Urahara's dungeon.

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**Well, there you have it. Chapter 9 – I'll get back to Ichigo and co. in the next chapter. This is sad, I remember how I wanted to end this fanfic, but I kind of lose what happens after the next chapter. **

**Hmm… starting and finishing a fanfic is hard . Haha, I'll try. I want this to be one of the stories I finish cause truthfully, I love this story and I'm a Bleach nut ) **

**-Griƒƒen**


	10. Lost and Found

**Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline**

**Okay, it's Winter Break and there is no special event happening tonight so I finally have some time to write something… ahem… this chapter may seem a tad, bad, so forgive me and don't hesitate to yell at me. I need some good encouragement to update faster.**

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**Chapter 10 – Lost and Found**

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"Damn it, where the hell is that blond-haired sissy," Ichigo growled angrily. They had been walking for what seemed like ages but they could find no trace of Kira's reiatsu at all. In fact, the whole building seemed empty, then again it was the same the last time Ichigo had been here. Empty. Desolate. The orange-haired young man sighed and angrily hit the wall with Zangetsu, much to the swords distaste.

"Calm down Ichigo, that boy's gotta be here somewhere," Isshin muttered, Ichigo's dad was obviously just as annoyed as his son was.

"We can't do much if we can't even find a trace of his reiatsu, where could he have gone anyways? There has only been one pathway so far, we have to run into him sometime…" Hitsugaya muttered, his words were not very encouraging.

"You are forgetting that the pathways can be manipulated, for all we know Kira is in some completely different direction, but no matter what we have to keep going forward, stopping doesn't do anything."

"How do you know we're not in some sort of illusion?" Ichigo muttered darkly.

"Well… you never actually saw Aizen's release, we blindfolded you remember?" Yoruichi replied.

"Maybe it's his bankai or something, maybe he was just tricking us, you never know with that guy!" Ichigo countered. At this point, Yoruichi was getting just a bit annoyed, but she didn't reply because she had just felt a familiar reiatsu and gasped.

"Kisuke!"

Isshin grunted, "You feelin' it to huh?" The dark-skinned woman didn't answer. "Well, c'mon, don't want to lose him. Maybe Kira's near that ole perverted scientist." His feeble attempt to lighten the mood didn't work, and instead the group wearily ran off towards the direction of Urahara's dungeon. Isshin and Yoruichi were extremely energetic but Ichigo and Hitsugaya were beginning to lag behind, the two really just wanted to kill Gin and get out of the place before anything else bad happened. Kira had been completely forgotten.

---

Kira walked aimlessly through the corridors of Las Noches, he had no idea where he was going but he knew he had to find his ex-taicho. That man was who Kira idolized, and he couldn't understand why Gin would go over to Aizen's side TWICE.

"Taicho…" Kira murmured sadly, his hands trailed along the cold wall of the fortress and wondered dimly what could be hidden behind those walls. The blond-haired fukutaicho was extremely surprised when he heard someone speak behind him.

"Ah… Kira-kun!"

"Aizen-Ta… er.. Aizen-san!" Kira exclaimed, startled. He quickly placed his hand on the hilt of Wabisuke but found surprisingly that his sword was nowhere near him. A fear gripped at Kira's heart and he began to panic as he felt a crushing reiatsu all around him, threatening to destroy his body.

"Yare yare… Kira-kun, so weak…" Kira's eyes bulged as he suddenly saw Gin's face in front of him.

"Taicho!" the fukutaicho shrieked, he was already caught up in Aizen's illusions. Kira whimpered slightly in fear as he felt Gin's ice cold fingers across his face, they burned his skin and then the fingers suddenly wrapped tightly across his throat, strangling him.  
T-Tai-… Taicho!" rasped Kira as he struggled to breath, his throat hurt, he was seeing spots in his eyes. Why would his captain do this?

"Pitiful, weak... you are no son of ours," Kira blinked startled, that sounded like his father. Impossible, his father was dead, but there was his parents standing before him, scowling.

"Oba-san, Oto-san…" Kira whispered, his hands reached out slowly and he took a tentative step forward, but he found he could not move. His parents turned and began to walk away, the blond-haired boy screamed in frustration. "OBA-SAN! OTO-SAN! IT'S ME!" they didn't even acknowledge him. A large pain began emerging from Kira's head, and suddenly he heard cruel laughing all around him. "Stop… please… stop…" the young man whimpered helplessly as he fell on his knee's gripping his head tightly. His eyes were shut but the images played themselves in his mind. His parents walking away, the grinning face of his captain and then the face of Aizen as he stood grinning triumphantly in front of the shinigami.

"Would you like me to stop Kira? Have you had enough?" Aizen whispered quietly to the shocked and half-crazed shinigami.

"Yes… please… stop…" whimpered Kira, his voice was high, only the whites of his eyes showed.

"Of course I'll stop, I am always kind to my underlings, you are my underling correct? My faithful servant… if you aren't…" the man trailed of suggestively, a cruel tint had entered his voice.

"NO, please… don't hurt me… yes, I'll help," Kira had no idea why he was saying these words. He wanted to say no, he didn't care if he died, so then why was he so weakly saying yes to Aizen like a little puppy?

"Ah, good… good… your first task as my servant…" Aizen paused, he gently lifted up Kira's face until the boy was staring at the man, "Kill Gin," the king of Las Noches smirked at the shocked, confused and then dazed look that flashed, in order, through the poor fukutaicho's face.

"H-Hai…" Kira slowly stood up and turned, walking off towards a random direction, but he was obviously going towards Ichimaru Gin, his taicho and the man he looked up to.

"Weak… weak boy.." Aizen murmured amused. He turned and smiled, albeit cruelly, at an espada standing just behind him. "Thank you Saiten, you have been very helpful,"

"Thank you Aizen-sama," replied the espada.

"Make sure Gin does die, oh and kill the girl as well, actually kill everyone except for Urahara if you could,"

"Hai, Aizen-sama,"

"Thank you Saiten," Aizen turned and walked away, Saiten hid back in the shadows where he suddenly disappeared. Aizen smirked, merging arrancars with demons was extremely interesting.

---

"We're lost aren't we…" Ichigo muttered. The group had been walking for hours but it seemed that Urahara's reiatsu, if it was indeed his, didn't seem to getting any closer, or farther.

"It seems we're being toyed with…" Hitusgaya grumbled.

Yoruichi didn't respond, she seemed extremely frustrated and her eyes constantly darted one way or another, as if trying to see which was the right way to go. It didn't matter though, the group had been going straight forward for the better part of 3 hours. Nothing seemed to change, forward and back, the walls, everything was the same.

"We're going in circles I bet… I mean, there is no way a pathway could be so long and not lead anyways!" Ichigo continued angrily, he glanced at his dad who seemed to be thinking just as much as Yoruichi was.

"Let's leave a mark and see if we see it again then, if you think we're going in circles," Isshin commented suddenly, Ichigo glanced at his dad.

"What you mean blast a whole in the wall?"

"Precisely son,"

"Wait, why didn't we think of doing that before?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, it did take us a while to realize we were actually stuck in some sort of problem," Hitsugaya pointed out, if a bit grudgingly, it took a genius a lot to admit they hadn't noticed something so obvious.

"Right well, stand back people," Ichigo took out Zangetsu and aimed it straight at the wall. "GETSUGA TENSHOU" he roared, only a small scratch appeared.

"I don't think knocking down a wall is going to be so easy anymore…" Hitsugaya grumbled, the young captain took out his own sword. "Soten ni zase, Hyorinmaru!" he whispered, and then swung. A large dragon smashed against the wall but nothing happened. The wall didn't even crack, in fact the wall didn't even FREEZE.

"Reinforced, or maybe we really are in some sort of illusion," Isshin sighed. "What you think Yoruichi?" The man turned when there was no answer. "Yoru-… what the…"

"What's wrong dad?" Ichigo asked, he turned towards where Yoruichi had been standing before.

She was gone.

---

"Ah… Gin-kun! You just walked in on me and Rangiku's interesting conversation!" Urahara commented lightly as Gin walked into the room with a strangled expression on his face.

Gin didn't even notice Urahara at first, his eyes were mainly focused on the little strawberry blond haired girl standing before him. _God I feel like a pedophile…_ he thought as he felt his stomach do flip-flops.

"Uh…" Rangiku muttered, she was afraid of the man, yet she wasn't. Something in her burned, some sort of hate. She couldn't place her finger on it though, she knew she hated this guy, she knew she was afraid of him. At the same time though she felt… something else. Something warm and bubbly. She had asked Urahara-san what a 'warm bubbly feeling' was called but he hadn't answered her.

"Urahara-san!" Gin smirked, he had regained his composure at last. "Long time no see, nice ta see ya again sir!"

"Mm… I bet, you'd better run while you can, she's right here for the taking and I don't think your little 'Aizen-taicho' is very happy with you," Urahara responded with a smirk of his own.

Gin frowned, he was beginning to feel very frustrated and annoyed with the whole situation.

_Why didn't I just kill her when I first found her… then she would've gone to Rukongai…_ Gin thought warily.

"Um… Gin…san?" The silver-haired man nearly jumped when he heard the soft voice of a little girl so close to his feet. He looked down and tried to put on his scariest smirk, it was hard as his mind didn't want to do a scary smirk. His heart and mind were both telling Gin to do a nice and warm soft smile so that the girl before him wouldn't be scared out of her wits. Gin told his heart and mind to shut up and go die since they hadn't helped him at all in his long life.

"Ah… Rangiku-chan is it? Hehe, so this is where ya've gone and run to…" Gin was surprised his voice didn't catch in his throat.

"Uh… uh… hai…" Rangiku muttered, she suddenly felt extremely shy.

"Heh, this isn't a safe place ta be Rangiku-chan!" Gin continued, trying to sound as scary and evil as possible.

"Urahara-san was nice to me."

Gin glanced at Urahara and glared, "I'm sure he was Rangiku-san, but he's going to die soon… they're gonna come and take 'im and when they see you wit' him they gonna take you to and lock ya back up!"

Rangiku paled, why in the world did she like this guy when he was so abnormally _scary_?

"Um… um…" she whispered, her eyes were beginning to burn but for some strange reason her mind yelled at her not to cry. _NO CRYING! NO CRYING IN FRONT OF GIN! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!_

"Hows about I take ya outta here ne? You'd like that Rangiku-chan?" Gin asked. His mind was contemplating whether he should just kill her right now so that her soul could go to Rukongai, then again she was in Hueco Mundo and would probably just turn into a hollow.

"B-But… you'll die!" Gin's eyes nearly flew open at the girls sudden concern for him.

He laughed to brush off his shock, "No one's gonna kill me, I'm Aizen's right-hand man!"

"Not anymore, Ichimaru Gin, prepare to die!" Kira growled angrily, his zanpakuto already raised.

* * *

**Oh, Ichigo and crew will become more interesting next chapter (I promise :D) **

**Ok, I honestly don't know when my next update will be. It's Winter Break and my English teacher (who is also my socials teacher) decided to assign some homework and I want to get it all done soon or else I'm going to panic. **

**Is anyone still reading this by the way? Well anyways R&R )**

**-Griƒƒen**


	11. Round One FIGHT

**Disclaimer: Bleach sadly doesn't belong to me-if it did, I would've been able to see the new movie already cries**

**Winter Break –Soon to be gone  
**

**Homework – not gone**

**Life sucks, this chapter doesn't. (I AM NOT EMO :P)**

**I am SOOO sorry - okay I had written this chapter during Winter Break and I honestly thought I had uploaded it. My deepest apologies . Argh, I feel like such an idiot... I was wondering why I wasn't getting any emails from after releasing a new chapter and then I realized 'oh... I didn't even upload the new chapter' -sigh-... I feel bad now... **

* * *

** Chapter 11 – Round 1, FIGHT!**

* * *

_Ichimaru Gin _**vs**_ Kira Izuru_…**START!**

"Kira-kun! Whadda pleasan' surprise!" Gin exclaimed with a large smirk the hid his shock and slight annoyance as well as a few other emotions which he couldn't place at the moment. Kira said nothing in reply and leaped quickly to attack Gin, his former captain was shocked at Kira's sudden growth in strength and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"That was a lucky dodge, but you will not dodge the next attack!" Kira growled, something that the boy had never done in his life. If Gin was any normal person he probably would've been afraid of this new, hostile blond boy.

"Ah… could you please move this fight outside? There is a young girl in your presence!" Urahara's voice rang out through the still silence after Kira's latest comment. The obviously hypnotized fukutaicho glanced at Urahara with a mixture of disgust and annoyance, and then his eyes caught onto the young girl who was standing quite defiantly behind Gin with a large and actually quite frightening glare on her face. Something in Kira's mind clicked, but it wasn't enough to bring him back to his senses.

"Silence prisoner! I will take care of you later, after I kill Gin and that girl!"

Gin raised his eyebrow and then laughed, "Kill me? Kira-kun… I thin' ya're mistaken, I ain't dyin no time soon…" He charged straight at the hypnotized boy, Shinso in hand, but before the swords met, Gin flicked his wrist quickly and sliced Kira's right arm open while dodging Wabisuke (Kira's zanpakto) quickly. "Don't think I'm gonna let ya hit my Shinso, I know all 'bout your Wabisuke's abilities!" Kira scowled but he didn't even seem to notice his injury. A frown appeared on the Gin's fox-like face.

Kira lunged, even though his sword arm was bleeding profusely, he didn't seem to notice, his swing was weak. Incredibly weak, and his arm was shaking quite un-controllably. Gin side-stepped and then kicked his opponent at the wall, what was Aizen playing at? Did he really think that he, Ichimaru Gin, had become so weak as to not be able to take on his own fukutaicho? He had to admit, yeah, Kira had gotten better but not by a lot. As he was lost in thought, Kira took this chance to try get another hit on his ex-captain.

"Gotta wait another 'undred years b'fore ya can land a hit on me, Izuru!" Gin whispered into Kira's ear, then he quickly dodged his opponents zanpakuto and landed beside Rangiku who by now was standing stock still in fear and something a bit to amusement. She didn't know how she could tell, but she just could tell that this new arrival was no match whatsoever to the silver-haired man standing before her. She had wanted to laugh at first when she had seen the fight but she thought laughing wouldn't have been a good idea and the gleaming swords scared her as well as intrigued her. While the young preschooler tried to sort out the many thoughts appearing quite suddenly in her head, Gin had picked up her and slung her across his shoulder and leaped out of Urahara's prison before Kira could even regain his composure.

"Sorry Izuru-chan, can't stay ta fight, gotta run!" Gin called back, Urahara laughed and watched Kira warily, the door to the prison slid shut, the blond boy snapped out of his daze and immediately chains appeared and wrapped around his ankles and wrists.

_Oh dear…_ Urahara thought, _Poor boy fell right into Aizen's little trap…_ he felt no sympathy for the boy. No, Urahara was cruel that way.

**Winner:**_Ichimaru Gin _

---

_Yoruichi Shihouin_** vs **_Saiten (4__th__ Espada)_… **START!**

Where was she? One minute she was standing there watching Hitsugaya and Ichigo unsuccessfully try to break down a wall, next thing she knew, she was in some sort of room and there was someone standing in front of her. Wait a second… someone… in front of her…! Yoruichi barely managed to dodge the fireball that had been launched her way.

"Ah… I see you have some skill, Yoruichi Shihouin," Yoruichi looked at her opponent before her, he wasn't a person.

"How do you know my name?" She asked warily, trying to buy some time in order to calculate out who this new stranger was.

He was an average Japanese male height, his hair was a very light blond, almost white in the light and he seemed extremely calm and composed for someone who was about to fight in a battle. His eyes were closed and he wore the standard arrancar uniform, there no extra addition or anything special about it. Then she noticed the four on the right side of his neck, then she suddenly felt the suffocating reiatsu and this time, part of her hair had been singed in her attempt to block the next fireball being launched her, the suffocating reiatsu was making her movements extremely slow.

"Still managed to dodge? I must admit, quite impressive," Yoruichi would've laughed at the way he spoke if the situation was so serious. Honestly, he was like a robot, _I am so impressed… oh yeah, impressed my ass_, the dark-skinned woman thought with a small smirk, that didn't go unnoticed. "Do you find something funny?"

"No," she answered simply.

"I do not advise you to lie to me, and I no, I am not impressed at your anus if that is what you are implying," Yoruichi looked dumbly at the espada in front of her wonder if he was stupid. "I am not stupid either, impressed my ass? I am sorry, I do not understand those words and merely tried to make as much sense as I could out of them," he answered, my god he sounded like Mayuri's daughter… what was her name? Nemu? "Please do not think about other things as I am talking to you, if you could please, Yoruichi Shihouin,"

Yoruichi sighed, even though this was probably an extremely powerful opponent, she couldn't help but think that this must be some sort of joke, honestly this guy was a-, the paused… wait, he could read her mind. Ah, that made things complicated.

"Excuse me Shihouin-san, I asked for you not to think about other things while we are having a discussion," the suddenly flare of reiatsu very nearly sent Yoruichi to her knees, but she was too stubborn to fall.

"Hai, gomen-ne…?" she paused, his name?

"My name is Saiten, I am the quatre espada, I have been sent by Aizen-sama to dispose of you as you are an enemy, we will fight, and I will defeat you," again Yoruichi looked dumbly at Saiten, he was so… blunt.

"How are you so sure that you will-" Another fireball, honestly where were these fireballs coming from? Yoruichi couldn't find the time to find out, they seemed to just come out of thin air right in front of her really. She frowned, was this some sort of special attack? She had never heard of a fire-typed hollow, she only spiritual entity that could produce a fireball aside from shinigami were… "You're a demon," she whispered in shock. His face didn't even flicker in surprise, she began to wonder if his face was permanently frozen like that.

"My face is not permanently frozen and yes, I am indeed part demon, that is why I have no mask upon my face," he stopped talking and every muscle in Yoruichi's body tensed as she prepared herself to spring to yet another attack. She was surprised when he continued on talking. "Aizen-sama took me out of Hell's gate with an object,"_The Ijinyari.._ Yoruichi thought glumly, "Please do not interrupt me, now as I was saying," a pause, "I was pulled out of Hell and I must say I was quite surprised at seeing a shinigami standing in front of me in the fortress of Hueco Mundo, he quickly explained his plans to me and I agreed quite readily, I was intrigued you see," another pause, then a sigh. Yoruchi waited. "The next thing I know, I am having this extremely painful experience upon my body, and when I open my eyes, I realize I am in a new body… Aizen-sama informed me that I had merged with the old quatre espada, Ulquiorra, he says I get my solemn side from him," Yoruichi struggled to keep the grin from her face, it was true. Ulquiorra and this new guy, Saiten were so alike in the ways they spoke.

"A demon huh…" she could feel the fear bubble in her stomach.

"Quite correct," a small pause. Yoruichi swore, another fireball had been launched at her. Quickly she darted away, what the hell could she do? In all honesty, she was pretty much screwed over. She tried lunging at Saiten but a shield was around him, a very painful shield, probably demon-magic as far as she could tell.

"Shit…" she whispered, if she just kept dodging, she would be exhausted in a few hours, she had to find some way to break the shield… how? For now, it seemed that Saiten had won.

---

"You guys feel that?" Ichigo turned towards Hitsugaya with a questioning look on his face.

"Feel what?"

"I swore I could feel something hot like fire just pass my face," the small taicho replied.

"What? You have to be kidding me, maybe you're just sweating to much!" Ichigo retorted, he wasn't in the best of moods.

"No, Ichigo, I've been feeling something strange for quite a while now as well… maybe this is a clue as to where we are and what happened to Yoruichi," Isshin muttered. The man himself had done nothing to aid his son and Hitsugaya in trying to destroy the wall.

Ichigo, not liking the fact that he was being teamed up on shut up and continued angrily striking the wall.

"I'm beginning to think that we aren't in a illusion, but more of alternate dimension," Isshin spoke slowly, thoughtfully, he was still piecing his thoughts together. "Yoruichi must've been pulled out of the dimension, probably by whoever is controlling this place we're in… I think the wall between this dimension and the one we're supposed to be in is breaking though as _some_ of us are beginning to feel things from the original dimension," Hitsugaya nodded understanding perfectly, it took a couple more seconds for Ichigo to nod his head but he understood the basics.

"So, you're saying, we're in a separate dimension and our hold in this dimension is weakening or something so we're going to be busting out of here some time soon?" Isshin nodded, "You can tell, the walls are beginning to crack," it was true. The walls were beginning to crack, ever so slightly. Ichigo now could feel the heat passing his face and he grew extremely frustrated.

"Damn it! Let's bust this friggen thing down!" he roared, with renewed energy he swiftly began attacking the wall.

---

"Ah… Kira-kun, how are you liking your new… quarters?" Aizen asked with a smirk. His face had appeared out of thin air in front of the prisoners. The boy's eyes were red, probably from crying. "Tsk. Tsk. A man does not cry… then again, I can hardly call someone like you a man now can I? Someone who so blindly follows after his captain…" Aizen laughed cruelly, "Enjoy your new home for the next few centuries," A cold cruel laugh filled the dungeon and Kira yelled in frustration.

"You know, you should take some counsaling," Urahara muttered, this only added on to Kira's depression. "Here," the old scientist said, he couldn't take anymore whimpering and yelling from this sad excuse for a guy.

"W-What?" Kira stuttered, in front of his was a key.

"It's the key's to your chain… Gin was ever so nice to give them to me,"

"W-When?" The blond boy's eyes started to water as he remembered how he had so viciously attacked his captain.

"Oh… I dunno, a bit before you arrived, oh and how is my medicine doing?" Urahara asked, Kira looked at his arm and was surprised that it was nearly healed.

"It's almost-"

"I know, I was just asking to build up conversation," suddenly talking to this boy was very tiring. "Hurry up and unlock yourself Izuru, we must leave and save our dear friends from their imminent death!" Urahara exclaimed over-dramatically.

"Won't Aizen hear you?" Kira whimpered picking up the key tenderly as if it were poison.

"Um… hear me? I don't think so Kira-kun, that man has always been quite confident and even if he does realize that I have broken out? Oh well, I can always run if I have the chance, I am a coward after all," Kira didn't miss the cold smile that had appeared on Urahara's face and suddenly felt afraid, very, very afraid. Just who was this guy really? He had heard rumours but he never really believed that Urahara Kisuke, ex-captain of the 12th division was such a cruel man, now he wasn't so sure.

"Let's go Urahara-san…" Kira whispered. Urahara nodded and lead the way out of the prison.

* * *

**Round two of Yoruichi vs Saiten will be next chapter. Gin will also be fighting a new opponent next chapter… or will it be Gin who is fighting?  
**

**There is probably gonna be some YoruichixUrahara in the next few chapters, I don't feel like making Hitsugaya and Ichigo fight cause they're to popular so Isshin is also going to fight but the other two won't.**

**So… how you like this chapter, oh and I know the fight between Gin and Kira was short but I never intended it to be long. PThe whole 'Round 1 etc. etc. thing… I dunno, a burst of creativity from me.**

**R&R (I'm always amazed by the number of 'so-n-so has added your story to their alert list/favourites list emails I get but never any 'so-n-so has reviewed)**

**-Griƒƒen**


	12. Round Two FIGHT

**Disclaimer: All the espada belong to me – everything else belongs to Tite Kubo… (sadly)**

**Oh wow, oh wow, two chapters so soon? I realize that I am a pretty big hypocrite cause I often find myself mumbling about people never updating their fanfics and then I realize.. 'you don't update your fanfic either genius' So instead of doing a project due on Monday (which I haven't started) I have decided to write the next chapter. See how much I care?**

* * *

**Chapter 12 – Round Two… FIGHT**

* * *

"Put me down! Put me down!" Gin's tolerance level for the little girl punching his back was getting lower and lower every second and he honestly started thinking about dropping her on the ground and just telling her to shut up but then he felt the guilt claw at his stomach. Even though this little girl wasn't his Rangiku, she in a way, still was. He could tell she remembered bits of her life in Soul Society, he knew that if he persisted, she would remember. He just had to teach her… first thing first though, Gin had to take this little girl out of Hueco Mundo without killing himself (and her) in the process.

"Sorry, can' do tha' jus' yet," Rangiku glared at the man called Gin, she didn't feel scared of him anymore. Instead she felt incredibly, incredibly angry. She felt like hitting him on the head and telling him what a bit idiot he was, she also wanted to call him more names but she didn't understand some of the words that were appearing in her mind. What the hell was a bass-turd anyways?

"Put me down! I'll yell!" she threatened and then took a huge gulp of air, in the next second she felt herself land on her bottom, hard, and felt tears coming to her eyes. Then she started to cry and Gin swore, forgetting that he was holding a four-year-old human girl and not the same girl he had met in Rukongai hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

"Sorry bou' that, here let me help-" Gin clutched his nose painfully and his eyes watered.

"Stay away from me… you… you… MEANIE!" the young girl shrieked. She had just punched him in the nose.

"Hey now, why'd ya do tha'?" Gin asked lightly, he felt blood dripping out of his nose. How the hell did a three year old girl have so much damn strength? She hadn't broken his nose, but she had hit him hard enough to make him bleed.

"You just dropped me!" her yelling started to sound quite hysterical.

_Oh dear…_

"Sorry, can't keep talkin' gotta run!" Gin picked up little Rangiku yet again and bolted as soon as he felt a reiatsu coming near. It was powerful, Gin released the grip of his nose and raised his hand out and pointed it at thin air and began muttering under his breath. He spoke extremely fast, he hoped he hadn't stumbled on any words, and then suddenly before him loomed a portal leading out straight to he real world.

"Ah, sorry, can't let you pass on Aizen's orders!" the portal disappeared, and a blade had appeared. Gin immediately parried with Shinso, Rangiku shrieked as she felt the tip of the sword just pass her barefoot.

"Eh… course ya can let me pass… just depen's on if ya want me to is all," Gin replied with a smirk.

"Well guess what fox-face? I don't want you to!" replied the new opponent who had just appeared.

Gin frowned and then sighed, he let Rangiku down and told her to stand back, they were going to fight in a hallway, it was small and there wasn't much space, hopefully he could protect her.

"Aizen had told me you were a sneaky lying bastard, what's with all this… kindness you're showing to this girl huh?"

Rangiku cocked her head, she had been mentioned and even she began to wonder why this man was so nice to her. She immediately grew scared as she remembered tales that her mama had used to tell her about 'little-girl snatchers', was he one of them? Rangiku heard a laughing in her head, she had learned to call this second voice her 'other self'.

_Little-girl snatcher indeed, haha, listen lil-girl I think it's just about time you went to sleep, I need a one on one conversation with Gin and you're not helping_

Rangiku was often confused by her 'other-self' this time was no exception. How did her other-self know so much about Gin anyways?

_Ah you will understand if you just speak to Urahara a bit more, he's coming here anyways, he'll arrive in a few moments, just wait_

How did her other-self know Urahara was coming? Her other-self didn't answer, Rangiku sighed and hid in the little inlet in the wall just in time as the battle between Gin and this mysterious new person had just begun.

_Ichimaru Gin_** vs**_ Fang-Ren_ (The 6th Espada)

"Fang-Ren? Chinese?" Gin smirked as he dodged and parried every attack Fang had launched.

"I was one of the worst people of Ancient China, I was a berserker in the emperor's army! I loved battle, the yell, the screams… the blood… and I'm about to get SOME MORE!"

Gin thought that Fang-Ren reminded him of someone.

"Don't daze of fool!" Gin swore and ducked next in time, a bit of his hair had been cut.

"Is you're hair naturally red?"

Fang paused for a bit and frowned, then he charged again, "WHAT F-ED UP QUESTION IS THAT?" Gin smirked and then laughed as he dodged much more quickly then the last time.

"_Ikorose… Shinso_," The sword extended and shot at Fang who dodged by jumping to the side, Gin turned his wrist, Shinso moved, slicing sideways, Fang jumped up attempting to leap to the back of Gin, Shinso followed. "My Shinso doesn't just stay in one direction after extendin' ya know, I can move 'im still."

"Tch, so? You still haven't cut me!" growled the 6th espada.

"Oh really? Check again?" A cut had suddenly appeared on the espada's exposed chest and cheek. His eyes flashed dangerously.

"I will… destroy you!" A sudden burst of reiatsu, Rangiku could barely breath, it was a surprise she hadn't fainted already.

Gin frowned and shook his head, then chuckled. "I hate repeatin' myself… I ain't gonna lose ta no one."

"Yeah, yeah, say that again when you're lying in a bloody pile on the floor!" Fang charged, his boost of reiatsu was suffocating, even for Gin who could take on the worst of Aizen's reiatsu without a sweat. What the hell was Aizen playing at, making such strong creations who were possibly even stronger than himself.

Rangiku could barely keep her eyes open, but with the sudden flare of suffocating power, she realized that Gin's chances of winning were slim, when was that scary hat-man going to come? She could barely see, her senses were dulling and all she wanted to do was sleep but her mind said that she couldn't sleep, sleeping would get her killed, an that fear was what kept the little girl from closing her eyes but in a few moments Rangiku wanted to close her eyes tightly, not from the crushing reiatsu but because of the scene before her.

---

"Keep at it Ichigo, I think you're finally doing something!" Isshin called, even at a time like this the man could joke around.

"Shut up and help me you dumb old man!" Ichigo growled angrily.

"Tsk. Tsk. I have to save up strength to save Yoruichi-san!"

"Well what about Toshiro?" Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes.

"That is Hitsugaya TAICHO!" Ichigo shook his head, whatever.

"The wall is going to break soon, just keep going at it… just wait, can't you feel the heat? I honestly wonder what that heat is," Isshin muttered darkly. He could feel Yoruichi's reiatsu and it seemed to be okay, but he could tell that all she had been doing was dodging, that means those heat waves were the attack of her unknown opponent.

---

Yoruichi swore yet again, damn it, she still hadn't thought of a plan! She still had lots of energy left, but you should never overestimate your abilities. She had to think of a plan quickly.

"I must admit, I am getting quite disappointed, I thought you'd be able to put up a better fight but I see all you can do is run," Yoruichi, not for the first time, wondered why the esapda never opened up his eyes. She knew he could read her thoughts but he never replied.

She continued dodging, occasionally she had tried breaking his barrier, and she could see that some of her kido attacks had weakened it, also on closer inspection she had noticed that the espada was not as calm as he sounded. When she had leaped at the barrier she saw his face was actually contorted in concentration and what looked a bit like pain, as if he was struggling to keep something up.

In the past half an hour, it seemed that his face was becoming more and more serious and he had grown much more quiet and rarely spoke. When he did, his breathing was laboured but he still managed to launch out such powerful attacks.

"What the hell should I do…" Yoruichi muttered, she needed help. She launched a spell of kido straight at the barrier, it flickered dully for a moment as the spell had multiple layers of attacking power. Another dodge, another spell, it was like a never ending pattern.

Then, the pattern changed, a yell was heard, Yoruichi froze for an instant and then leaped away.

"DIE!" Ichigo yelled as he charged, already in bankai, straight at Saiten, the espada's eyes were open in shock, then he raise up his hand, muttered something and Ichigo flew back and slammed straight through the wall. Isshin frowned.

"I don't forgive people for attacking my son," the man growled as he gripped his zanpakuto. "Hitsugaya, go check on Ichigo… get him out of here to. Find the portal to get out of here quick, looks like the residents in Hueco Mundo have become a lot stronger than before. The white-haired taicho nodded and left immediately through the hole which Ichigo had created.

"Running away? Hmm… trash like him still hasn't changed," Isshin raised his eyebrow.

"The guy has a bit of Ulquiorra in him," Yoruichi explained, it wasn't much of an explanation but Isshin was a lot smarter then he tended to put on.

"We'd better finish this quick, my kids won't forgive me if I don't make it out alive and Urahara would probably kill me if he found out I left you to die." He charged, Isshin in many ways was like his son, except Isshin always had a plan in mind.

Quickly Isshin released and his sword changed into a extremely large sword at least a meter and a half long, single edged with only what looked like a wooden hilt that was only attached to the sword by a rope binding that tied through a large hole near the end of the sword. Honestly the thing looked like it could break any second, but it managed to destroy Saiten's barrier, although Isshin received many injuries in the process.

"Ah… that felt fun, haven't had to release this baby in ages," Isshin muttered weakly, coughing up blood.

"Dummy," Yoruichi muttered as he picked up the man, Saiten was currently immobile, the aftershock of the destruction of his broken barrier and alternate dimension was affecting him greatly. "We have to get out while we can, there is no way we're going to survive if this keeps up, it's garunteed someone is going to die getting out," the dark-skinned woman whispered to one of her greatest friends as she slung the man across her shoulder and shunpo'd out of the room via the hole which Ichigo made.

---

"Looks like one battle has just ended, my, my, Isshin was always a berserker at heart," Urahara murmured with a laugh as he walked, extremely calmly through the walls of Heuco Mundo. Kira walked slowly behind him, how could the guy stay so calm, wasn't he afraid of an attack. "But I think another has just begun," Kira looked up startled as he felt a familiar flare of reiatsu.

"Taicho!" he yelled speeding forward, Urahara sighed and frowned at the boy._Honestly… _

"Ah… Yoruichi is fine, that's good… looks like it's time to save dear little Rangiku-san, wouldn't want Aizen getting his hands on my most prize possession," a cold glint had appeared in Urahara's eyes and it would've been a perfect time to laugh maniacally, except Kisuke had never bothered making an evil laugh and so just laughed hysterically like he always did.

Slowly he followed after Kira who had by then, sped far ahead. Urahara walked along the walls, feeling the stone and occasionally started humming to himself, all the while, extremely aware of shadow trailing behind him. Demons, such marvellous creatures, and extremely wonderful allies to have. Who said Yoruichi had completely managed to dissuade Urahara from the path of evil? Well whoever had said that was wrong.

* * *

**Oh, oh… who is Urahara really:o **

**Two chapters for your pleasure, Saiten lost round two, Ichimaru won round two… round three beginning, who's going to win Ichimaru or Fang Ren?**

**Oh and no, Fang Ren was not merged with Grimmjow, only Ulquiorra and Stark of the old espada remained after the war. **

**Oh and we're going to leave Hueco Mundo next chapter, well not completely leave HM, but we're gonna go back to the real world as well as go to Soul Society to, I know this is turning into a weird, evil… 'behind the scenes evil mastermind' kind of thing, and it sort of is, but the main point was to show Gins love for Rangiku and I will. **

**Griƒƒen**


	13. Guess who's Back

**Disclaimer:**All the Bleach characters belong to Tite Kubo except for the espada )

I've been watching the Bleach Rock Musicals like a retard lately and I seriously can't get enough of the song 'Silent Wish'. sigh… I was watching Bleach on YTV last night (haha, I was bored, so sue me) and when I saw Aizen and I freaked and started squealing. My dad thought I had issues, I think so to.

But honestly listening to everyone singing in the musical is so awesome

This chapter goes to **Waya.Y**'cause you got me off my butt to update xD -gives you a lollipop- (so much for next week eh? oO)

Chapters kind of short though so... yeah - sorry if you like long chapters.

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**Chapter 13 – Guess who's Back?**

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Ichigo lay in a crumpled heap on the ground panting, his father was beside him. Minutes passed to wait for the two men to recover, no one had followed them. Both of them were bleeding heavily, Ichigo had flown through **two** extremely thick walls and had ended up making a large dent in the third, he was obviously very beaten up. Isshin was worse of than his son. 

"Honestly, you two just love bleeding don't you?" Yoruichi sighed, she really wanted to get out of here but it wasn't safe to go through the gate unless you were healthy.

"Hehe… sorry 'bout that but … you know, it's been a while since I got to fight," Isshin murmured weakly.

Yoruichi bent down with a bottle in her hand and began applying some sort of paste onto the wounds of Ichigo and Isshin, it was mostly to stop the bleeding but some of the lesser cuts were beginning to heal. A few more minutes passed for the two men to recover some more.

"Are you guys ready?" Ichigo stood up shakily, Isshin did to. They looked like they were about to fall in a matter of seconds but miraculously the two men managed to stay on their feet.

"What did you give us?" Isshin asked, he felt terrible but somehow lots of strength surged through him.

"Doesn't matter, can you go? We don't have time and if we don't make it before that stuff stops working then you two are going to die!" Yoruichi stated matter-of-factly.

"Let's go…" Ichigo wheezed out, his face was pale and the young adult _swore_ he could feel his bones scraping together. (sorry for the nasty thought)

Yoruichi had a worried look on her face as she took out the contraption to open a portal from Hueco Mundo to the real world.

"He'll be fine Yoruichi," he was referring to Urahara, "but some of us have to get out of here now" Isshin commented, understanding why the woman was worried. "Me and Ichigo need a hospital…" he laughed weakly, blood came out but Isshin wiped it away like it was saliva.

"Get ready," Hitsugaya mumbled as Yoruichi muttered the incantation for the portal. It appeared, they stepped through and then… they were swallowed by the darkness.

888

"…What are you doing here Kurosaki?" Ryuuken muttered, he coldly glanced at the two injured shinigami with no warmth in his eyes. Even though the two were half dead, the guy honestly didn't seem to care.

"Aw, you're so cruel to me Ryu," Isshin grunted with a weak grin. The quincy sniffed and sighed.

"Come, or must I drag you?" The two shinigami followed both wincing in incredible pain.

"This is going to take a while to recover, many of your internal organs have been crushed Isshin, and you Ichigo, you have nearly broken every bone in your body."

Ichigo looked at Ryuuken with wide eyes. "How did I manage to stand?" He muttered confused.

"I suggest that you two should go to Soul Society, I doubt I can help you… Yoruichi has put a very strong anaesthetic in you to numb the pain. I don't know how your bones managed to hold together but you honestly probably shouldn't look at yourself." The Quincy frowned, the state of the boy was disgusting. Even Ryuuken who had seen many dead, mangled bodies in his life-time had wanted to barf after examining Ichigo. Honestly, whatever Yoruichi had used was extremely strong.

"Um… how can we get to Soul Society if we can't even move?" Ichigo muttered dryly.

"You don't have to go, we're gonna take you! Long time no see Ichigo, getting killed as usual!" Zaraki walked into the hospital along with Byakuya and Renji and Soi-fon.

"What… why are you guys here?"

"After Ikkaku reported the appearance of Ichimaru Gin we were sent to retrieve him, when we arrived you had all gone to Hueco Mundo, we have stayed to question you." Byakuya explained dully.

"Yoruichi has informed us on the basics of things, we are going to take you to Soul Society for recovery and will then question you there on the espada." Soi-Fon continued.

"Up and at 'em" Zaraki grunted, picking up Ichigo and Isshin none to gently.

888

It took a much longer for Urahara to arrive at the destination of Gin's fight than it did for Kira. Why it took the guy so long was strange but at the moment, most of the people were too pre-occupied to answer.

Gin was losing.

He knew he was losing and the fear that was surging through his body made his fighting skills dull. Yes, he was afraid. He didn't want to die, not so soon after finding her. If he died, he might be re-born in America, then there was an even less chance of remembering her! He fought back valiantly, honestly, he didn't fight back hard enough. Another blow landed and stained his white garments red.

"I'm going to make you pay for beating me in that first round! I'll kill you, I'll destroy you, slowly. Slowly… and then… she'll be next!" Gin would have glared, but glaring would require him to open his eyes and Gin didn't want to show his anger so he just frowned.

"Didn' I tell ya… I ain't gonna lose ta no one!" he replied. His voice was light, teasing, playful, and layered with pain and anger.

Fang laughed maniacally as he brought his sword swinging down. Gin dodged, albeit more sluggishly than before.

"Yare, yare… I've never seen you covered in your own blood before Ichimaru-san!" Urahara laughed. Gin dodged another strike and turned towards Urahara with a smirk.

"Well… tha situation's differen' from all those other times Urahara-san."

Rangiku still had her eyes shut tight. She could smell blood everywhere. Some had splattered on to her, it scared her. The red. She didn't like it, especially when it was covering Gin. She had her eyes shut but she could still hear the sound of flesh being sliced, she could hear him grunt in pain. And when no one decided to help, not Kira, not even Urahara the little girl felt she had to do something. She stepped out into the battlefield.

"Rangiku-san! You might not want to stand there!" Urahara called, his smile was hidden by the fan in his hand.

Gin for the second time, turned around, his eyes flew open. A laugh echoed through the hallway.

"Hehe, what's this lil girl? Ya wanna die first?" Fang Ren growled. He charged at the little girl.

"NO!" Gin exploded, his reiatsu flared dangerously and the walls began to shake. He dived to put himself in between Rangiku and her attacker but was surprised when he was thrown back by some sort of shield, the enemy espada was just as surprised. A low growl was heard, Gin knew that sound. Shinso responded by trembling excitedly, elatedly.

A gray smoky haze had surrounded Rangiku, it looked like ash and a figure appeared form the swirling vortex of painful dust. A cat, large and menacing. At first the cat glared at Gin and then it's gaze swept to the espada who was crawling out of the wall. The walls were still shaking and Gin realized it wasn't his reiatsu doing this anymore… it was hers. Her own.

He tried to look through the thick haze, tried to get a glimpse of Rangiku but Haineko was cruel and would not let him see. Shinso trembled again, excited at seeing Haineko. Happy. That was it, Shinso was happy.

Zanpakuto's also had the ability to fall in love, because a zanpakuto was part of their masters soul. Shinso loved Haineko just as Gin loved Matsumoto and so the sword urged his master to go forward. Gin withheld though, he could tell that the menacing ash-cat would not let him pass. She had never liked him, even if she did love his sword. Haineko had never felt any warmth for Gin but for now she had a different enemy to pounce on.

A zanpakuto in his or her materialized form was a cruel thing, they were merciless… especially to their enemies. Fang-Ren was smart when he decided to flee.

"Oh my…" Urahara murmured with a smirk.

"M-Matsumoto-san!" Kira whispered in shock and fear.

"Oh dear, oh dear… how are we going to get her back to her senses?" Kira frowned, Urahara didn't sound very worried at all. In fact he seemed to be joking around.

"Urahara-san, this isn't a time to be saying such comments so lightly! We really must think of something!" The young blond glanced at his old captain with worry, he just seemed to be standing there with a look on his face which Kira had never seen in his life. He had tried calling Gin before but he had never responded.

"_**You kill her and then expect me to forgive you?**_" Haineko growls, Gin is now in her world.

"Well… no, just… could you let me through?" Gin was trying very hard to glance past the gray smog, when he had entered Haineko's world he thought he had seen a figure lying on a barren rocky ground. This wasn't how he remembered Haineko's world to look like.

"_**ICHIMARU GIN! Tell me why should I not kill you now?**_" The snarling cat growled angrily, she had swelled in size and was now towering over Gin, her mouth was open exposing her sharp teeth and although were made of ash were quite deadly. Gin knew, he had felt them before.

"Well, Shinso'd be gone…" He responded lightly with a small smirk. Haineko growled, she did not like being teased.

"_**Ichimaru… I have given you many chances, Matsumoto always insisted that you were of good heart, now, give me proof of your good heart!**_" Gin frowned, his insides twisted uncomfortably. Then he smiled sadly.

"Thank you for giving me a chance, but you already know… she was my heart," Gin turned and began to walk away, of course he couldn't really walk anywhere but he still decided to just walk. Haineko was silent, she did not call to him and soon her world disappeared and she spoke with a low growl.

"…_**One more chance…The next time we meet, show me whether you truly have a good heart or not!**_" Before his eyes, for just a brief second, lay Matsumoto on a field of grass, then it was gone.

He glanced at the now unconscious figure of the small girl before him and he smiled, inwardly of course. Hope coursed through his veins, she was there. She was waiting for him, he just knew it.

* * *

**Ah… I have done it. I've managed to plan out this entire story so that everything will fall extremely neatly into place. It took a bit of thinking on my part but truthfully I already had most of this story planned out, I just needed to find a way to put it together nicely. **

**I've finally done it and so now I can continue writing much easier (now I don't have to think 'hmm… what I should I put in this chapter?') **

**So - I hoped you like this chapter - **

**-Griƒƒen**

**P.S – towards the end of the story (in about 2-4 chapters) this story will become really dramatic like (hopefully but I'm not good with drama as you can tell, this drama story of mine basically turned into a complete action story) **


	14. True Colours

**Disclaimer:****Almost**** everything in this story belongs to Tite Kubo :)**

**Uh... so much for updating faster, sorry about that. I've been obsessing over lots of things lately (new r4 for my ds - played Super Smash Bros. Brawl (btw it's pretty awesome) and I've been slightly coughcompletelyinsaneovercough the Bleach Musicals. I really don't like musicals but honestly if you're as crazy of a Bleach fan as me, you'll love the Bleach musical anyways **

** Oh, this chapter... um... it might be weird - I don't know it was kind of hard making this chapter flow properly and even so it still came out slightly... well, strange in my opinion and I actually spent a while changing lots of it and this is the best I could come up with. I realized I could've ended this story along time ago but I realized I put in lots of info. in my earlier chapters and I thought that if I didn't do anything with them... well... that info would just have been a waste. ANyways, chapter 14 here for you folks.   
**

* * *

**Chapter 14 – True Colours

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**

As the ash that had suddenly surrounded little Rangiku disappeared, Gin ran up to the fallen body and held it close to him trying to see how the little girl was doing. Obviously she was alive but the heart beat was extremely faint. This scared Gin yet made him feel extremely happy at the same time, the happiness made him feel sick to the stomach. Someone like him shouldn't deserve something as pure as happiness.

"My, my… we should leave before she suffers anymore," Urahara laughed as he snuck up behind Gin, nearly causing the silver haired man to unleash his zanpakuto. "A bit jumpy aren't we?" Urahara continued, noticing Gin's hand twitch towards his sword.

"Shut up!" Gin muttered harshly, he slowly stood up and had to take many deep breaths before he could open a portal to the real world. He was feeling extremely scared at the moment, why? Gin wasn't to sure, but he knew that the moment this little girl's soul was back in her body, he would be fine. Or, he hoped anyways. After an impatient, and extremely annoying, cough from Urahara, Gin finally opened up a portal.

Gripping Rangiku tightly, Gin stepped into the blackness and then re-appeared above Kurakara town. It was night time, the stars twinkled faintly. Gin smiled, he remembered lying outside as a child with Rangiku looking at the stars. His happy day-dreaming was cut to an end when he heard the horrible sound of the portal closing and the annoying sound of Urahara's voice and Kira's soft whimpering.

"If you'd like, I can take care of her... restore her," Urahara whispered lightly, his expression was hidden behind his fan. Gin narrowed his eyes, he didn't like the words the scientist had just used.

"Won' she be fine after a bit 'o rest?" Gin asked with a grin, trying to hid his suspicions of this man.

"Ah, that's where you are wrong my good friend," The sandy-haired man laughed as if what he just said was incredibly funny. "Her soul has suffered immense damage because it has been forced to travel through worlds without leaving its material body behind, without proper treatment on the soul chain it is very likely her soul will die…" Urahara let his end of the sentence trail of suggestively.

Gin was silent, he was afraid to open his mouth. Afraid of what he would say. For a few seconds he had been tempted to just let her die, but he was being selfish again. Selfish, incredibly selfish. This little girl, she had a life to live and he couldn't take it away, no. With much doubt crowding the pained mans mind he handed young Rangiku's body to Urahara and glanced pointedly at Kira, smirking.

"Aren' ya gonna get back t' Seireitei, Izuru?" The old Gin would've laughed at the sight of Kira cringing after hearing the use of his name, but the ex-third squad captain had changed. Whether the change was for better of for worse was yet to be decided.

**(A/N – I keep writing all this deep emotional stuff randomly in the middle of paragraphs It's getting really frustrating)**

"I'll have her all fixed up and healthy in no time, my dear friend!" Urahara smiled faintly and quickly shunpo'd back to his shop, Kira quickly following leaving Gin alone. Alone… yes… that's what he needed. His space to think, his silence, something he had missed in Seireitei and had hated in Hueco Mundo.

It was unknown to Gin how long he stayed up in the sky for, it must have been long though for when he opened his eyes the sun was shining directly overhead him. At first Gin just wanted to lie in the sky and just die, but the thought of dying brought up something else._Rangiku!_ He thought worriedly. Was she alright? Did Urahara manage to save her? His face contorted in a mixture of pain and a grin, only someone like Gin could manage to pull a face like that.

Quickly he shunpo'd to Urahara's shop, when he entered though, the place was eerily silent. The air was incredibly thick, something was incredibly wrong. Not even those little brats, that dumb red-head and that stupid pig-tail girl was around.

Masking his reiatsu Gin entered the shop and walked around, the main area was empty, the back was empty to but he could still feel an incredibly suffocating aura. It wasn't reiatsu, it was different, it was warm… like fire. There was no fire though. The silver-haired man strained his senses trying to find out what was happening in this store but to no avail. Should he ask that dumb Kurosaki for help? No, Yoruichi was probably a better assistant but she was no where to be found.

After searching every inch of the house, even the underground training area, Gin was feeling incredibly uneasy. The story was much to empty and the thick, warm, aura was extremely un-nerving. It made Gin feel horribly guilty and he realized that if he stopped to think for even a second he could see all the wrongs and hear all the lies he'd done and told in his life.

"In illusion?" he muttered, shaking his head. Another flashback had hit him, he had to keep his senses up. As Gin moved around some more he realized that at a certain spot in (what he assumed was) Urahara's room was where the flash backs and the guilt assaulted him the most. He struggled hard to reach the opposite end of Urahara's room but it was incredibly hard considering flashbacks and voices completely crowded his senses.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

_A soft crying could be heard in their little home as Gin returned from another one of his trips away. He gripped the food he held tightly and resisted the urge to drop the food and run into the shack to apologize to the girl who was crying inside. _

"_G-Gin?" he heard a muffled whimper as he stepped through the threshold and immediately felt something crash into his arms making him spill the food he had gathered. _

"_Ran-chan" He exclaimed shocked and happy and guilty at the same time. "Stop cryin', I'm back! N guess what Ran-chan? I brought back some more food!" He tried to ignore the tears staining her face and looked away so he wouldn't be able to feel the guilt claw at his stomach. Gin was weak this way, he didn't like feeling anything aside from happiness, he was also selfish this way as well. _

"_Gin, there's blood on you! What did you do?" He winced, so she had noticed. _

_He didn't answer._

_She didn't persist. _

_Rangiku's attention was so easily averted, especially by food._

_A few days passed and Gin found he had to go out again, even if their store of food was high, who said he was going out for food? No, food was only a little extra he gathered while away. Gin would never tell Rangiku what he had actually done as a child, he had killed. Every night, food was just a little extra. _

_After all, with the food in hand, it was just a bit easier for Gin to lie to himself and insist that he was leaving to get food and not to get revenge on those that had wronged him. _

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Gin fell onto the floor clutching his head, oh god how he hated this. He could even hear her voice, so clearly, and see her face. Maybe if he reached out he could enter the memories that were currently torturing him. He felt his eyes sting as tears threatened to pour out but Gin didn't want to cry. This wasn't a crying moment, he wouldn't allow himself to cry.

_Oh god! Not that one!_ Gin would've yelled, he would've destroyed the whole building in order to stop himself from seeing what he was seeing at that moment. Shinso as he sliced clean through Rangiku's chest, hear her last dying words. His body convulsed, shuddered and Gin was left to lie panting for a few brief minutes. His mind and body were both exhausted at the mental torment.

It was then that, in that brief silence that Gin heard a muffled cry of a little girl and the soft whispering of _It's alright, this won't hurt_. (**a/n – wow, sounds like I'm writing about some pedophile oo)**

Gin snapped is head forward so fast it was surprising his neck didn't snap, he had heard the voices. Where? He strained his head forward, another muffled cry, it sounded like it was behind the wall. Gin hurriedly stood up, and quickly began searching the room even if he was dog-tired. He needed to find Rangiku before those torturing memories assaulted him again. The hot, steaming, dreadful aura seemed to be getting stronger and Gin frantically ran his hands along the wall. He had tried (quite unsuccessfully) to blow the wall apart, it resulted in Gin flying back so hard against the walls of the shop that he was probably haven't a concussion.

"Damn it…" he whispered, his heart pounded as if it could sense the danger that was threatening to come. Suddenly, behind a bookshelf he hit something. A switch? He wasn't all to sure, but suddenly the wall slid away revealing a hidden lab, and inside, Urahara and Rangiku.

"Ah… Gin-san!" Urahara murmured, seemingly amused. His hand was shoved right into Rangiku's chest, like, right through it. In fact, about three quarters of Urahara's arm was going right through the little girls chest, where the arm was going really? Gin had no idea, and honestly didn't want to think about it.

"Ah… Urahara-san… may I ask, what ya're doin'?" Gin asked politely, in the most sweet and dangerous voice he could muster. His reiatsu flared dangerously around him but Urahara didn't seem to notice at all.

"Oh, nothing Gin-san, just… fixing up Rangiku like you asked me to," Gin would've snorted if he even knew how. Even a baby could realize that no, Urahara was _not_ trying to heal Rangiku. In fact it looked more like he was… he was… Gin's smile disappeared instantaneously off his face and was replaced by a frown. His eyes opened by just a bit, Shinso trembled inside his sheath.

"Tell me… Urahara…" Gin paused, his voice even more dangerous than before, "What. Are. You. Doing?" Each word was said slowly, one at a time, layered with multiple levels of anger and threats. The scientists merely smirked and then his face suddenly changed into delighted surprise and happy triumph. Gin would've attacked had Rangiku not been in the way.

"Ah… finally, my little prize," Urahara whispered, he slowly began dragging his arm out of Rangiku's body (or soul) Gin wasn't to sure which was which. The body convulsed and scream erupted from the tiny girl, it was high and blood-curling. Obviously, whatever was happening to her was incredibly painful. "Tsk. Tsk. If only Aizen hadn't stolen all my soul extracting potions…" Urahara sighed, his face annoyed at the loud yelling. "Well, I'll get him back for it soon enough," the sandy-haired man continued with a laugh, not even glancing up at Gin who was trembling with anger.

"What are you doing to her?" Even with the yelling and the sudden high crackling of spirit energy, Ichimaru's voice could be heard quite clearly no matter how low it was.

"Oh, nothing really, just taking pack a possession of mine,"

Gin gripped Shinso tightly, the sword was begging for some blood. Gin refused, with the way Urahara's arm was still in Rangiku's body, it was entirely possible for the man to manoeuvre the body so it would be stabbed as well. Gin didn't want to hurt Rangiku. As if sensing Gin's thoughts, Urahara did indeed move Rangiku's body so it was held out in front of him, almost acting like a shield. Gin hissed in anger, his reiatsu flared dangerously around. The noise in the lab was deafening.

"Almost there, come on…" Urahara muttered delightedly, his eyes glowed like a child who had just received a new toy. Another body convulsion, another ear-wrenching scream. Gin was torn between stabbing Rangiku and stopped Urahara. Also, the memories were flashing through his head again.

He felt himself fall. Gin struggled to stay conscious but his sight was slipping. He was drifting, not to unconsciousness but to the world of dreaded memories and he was afraid. He didn't want to look at his memories, he didn't want to see his childhood, to go through the guilt all over again. To see her face, to go through _those times_.

Gin wasn't sure how much time had passed, it could've been a while, it could've been not much time at all. He had been completely conscious the whole time but trapped in his own little world. His hands and nails were bloody, he had clawed his hands and his face burned… had he clawed at his face to? He couldn't remember, the sight of Urahara standing triumphantly in front of him brought Gin back to his full senses though.

There was Urahara, standing with a wide smirk. Rangiku's body lay lifelessly on the ground just before Gin's feet, he felt his stomach lurch in a way that made him want to barf. Was she dead? The thought made him hollow, was she dead? A surge of anger flooded through Gin's body, slowly, body trembling, Gin stood.

Urahara turned with a smirk, "Ah… sorry about Rangiku, I wasn't sure how her soul would turn out after that… experiment but I'm sure-" Gin had punched him. It was an incredibly weak punch for someone of captain level but it was strong enough to hurt and cause Urahara's head to snap back. There was a moment of silence, only Gin's panting could be heard. Slowly Urahara turned his head, his eyes were hidden by his hat but the look that Urahara gave rivalled Gin's most scary battlefield glare. "Ah… Ichimaru-san, that wasn't very nice of you…" Urahara whispered, his hand gripped something tightly.

"You… bastard…" Gin choked out, he could taste blood. It was sickening.

Urahara sighed wistfully, "I really don't want to do this," Benihime suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Gin barely had time to dodge.

"What… what did you do to her?" Gin whispered threateningly, his was tired. He was weak. His head hurt, Gin would've laughed at the feeble excuse for his sudden weakness. A headache…

"Oh, nothing really, just took back what is rightfully mine," It was then that Gin caught the small glistening red object in Urahara's hand. Understanding dawned on the silver-haired shinigami. Yoruichi's explanation not three days ago came back all at once. "Ijinyari…" Gin breathed out.

"Ah, I guess Yoru-san told you about it hmm?" Uruhara murmured, a hint of regret in his voice. Something, the way Urahara spoke infuriated Gin and it took him a moment to realize why. When he did, Ichimaru felt sick. Urahara was like him, except in a way, worse. They had both deserted their loved one to follow the path of evil, but Gin hadn't really hurt anybody aside from _her_.

Silence, his vision was getting red and hazy. It wouldn't be long before Gin fainted, why not do something heroic in the last few moments. Weakly, Gin raised up his hand which held Shinso and pointed it at the general direction of Urahara, if he missed, oh well.

"Ikorose… Shin…so…." His last breath, Shinso extended, Gin closed his eyes as he felt his legs give way as the emotional trauma he had been feeling left him for dead.

Suddenly a gust of hot, heating air rushed into Gin's face, the man opened his eyes and before him stood the gates of hell. He grinned wryly. "Guess I'm not pure enough to stay a innocent soul…" he murmured, the doors opened slowly but instead of being sucked in the utter opposite happened. To Gin's utter horror, demons leaped out in mounds, cackling, grinning and running free. He turned his head to Urahara, but the scientist looked just as shocked as Gin.

"No…" Gin whispered as he used the very, very last amount of his energy to launch himself over to Rangiku, the last thing he felt was a burning claw on his back and then excruciating pain.

* * *

**My imaginations of the Bleach world can get completely out of hand - I swear. I haven't even mentioned one thing about Soul Society --'' feels kind of bad**

**Oh and if you did read my A/N's sorry bout that, they're kind of random ya... cough ahem... -sigh- honestly I have no idea when my next update'll be but hopefully it'll be before Spring Break (March 16-2x) **

**currently over-excited about upcoming Bleach Musicals and next Manga Chapters**

**-Griƒƒen **


	15. DROPPING THIS FIC

Apparently my last message said some things that I did not mean to imply at all (which just goes to show how much I fail at writing), so I'll change this to make it short, sweet and completely understandable without any confusion.

So, I'm dropping the fic. Yes, sad, I know. Sorry to all my past (and if there are going to be any...) future readers.

My reason for stopping this fic, and than dropping it (1 year after never updating) is because I have no inspiration. Well, I didn't update because I had no inspiration and than gradually I just forgot about this fic entirely. There is no way too update this story now because I have no idea what I was trying to write. If I was to keep on updating, whatever I write for you guys will sound terrible.

Why I don't just delete my story off this site? Because.. for the simple fact that I don't want to delete the story. Just because I'm stopping the story doesn't mean I want to get rid of it. Sure, I _could_ export the chapters onto my computer but... if I did that I'd just delete all the chapters the next day, or a week later. If I keep this story here I will definitely never delete it.. (if someone else does, well... what could I have done to stop that?).

and I'm going to start rambling soon (and will probably come off as being rude and immature - woops!), so again, sorry to any readers. Thank you to anyone who bothered reviewing (even if it was just to say I was being immature, because hey, you actually took the time to write it out), and who knows, maybe I will write a Bleach fanfic sometime later... maybe...


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